2000-04-21 - 23:38:14

April 21, 2000

I was telling you about the depression the other night, now I will tell you about how I experienced it. It wasn't long before we began to hurt, Mom's and Dad's wages combined added up to less than the amount of her wages before. Women were paid pitifully compared to men, so hard times were upon us. Shoes, when bought were the sturdiest cheap shoes, I was given strict orders, "Don't kick cans, don't scuff them up, polish them once a week, as they wore they would be half soled, half soled with heels, finally resoled with new heels too. This was done over and over until there wasn't enough of an upper to keep the laces apart from the soles. An expensive operation was capping the toes, but it was cheaper than new shoes. Clothes were the cheapest from the cheapest store, bought a size too large in the hopes that I would grow into them. . . . . . fat chance, young kids wear better and longer than those old clothes. Winter wraps were worn year after year until worn out or became too small for my growing body. Food, beans and weinies, weinies and beans and sometimes a bologna sandwich for a change. To this day I hate to eat either weinies or beans - - - pintos that is. Once in a while Mom or Dad would get a windfall of some kind and we would have canned peaches, maybe an ice cream cone. Until I got older I did not know you could buy ice cream by the pint. Sometimes bananas. At Christmas, in my sock would be a tangerine (how I love them yet), I felt lucky to even having anything to eat.

Somewhere in that time there was a drouth in the growing section of our country. Crops would die right after sprouting or not come up at all due to lack of water. Then the wind started blowing and blowing and blowing. Smog oh son, you should be sheltered from having to breathe vertical real estate like we did for so long.

Men suffered due to the inability to find work. Myself, walking to school, seeing the dust swirling against buildings and in the gutters, and seeing nothing green growing, my teeth gritting on dust, the streets looked similar to something like a scene in Hell to me. The sky wasn't blue but brownish and there was so much dust in the air it would seem like dusk rather the middle of the day. Understanding what the grown folks were suffering it made me wonder, "Why, Why, Oh Why ?" It did put me on a par with people of other lands who suffered all these things all the time and gave me an understanding beyond my years I think.

Our amusements were home made, solitaire, rummy, word games, going to the library and getting books. Wasn't much of anything to be had and we all made the best of it, and managed to find cheer in spite of it.

Those are the things I saw and felt and in my opinion it is about what others felt too. Can't give you the expert knowledge of what happened, but I have told you what I saw and experienced.

I hope that you or your children never have to go through that, but in your education please prepare yourself mentally to be able to cope with privation and tragedy. I love you grandson, g'night

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