Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I lived about a 1-1/2 mile from my school and we left at 12 noon for home and lunch. Supposed to be back by 1:15 for class. One kid got in trouble with the teacher and she made him stay in class while the rest of us filed downstairs and out the door for home. She went to some room with the other teachers for their lunch and forgot about the boy in the classroom. At 1:PM she went upstairs to the classroom and there was this kid still sitting at his desk.
She told him to quickly go home for lunch. He did not return to class that day.
He was Russian or Polish...cannot recall which as it's been a long time ago. His mother did not speak any English that I recall thus never complained to the teacher/school.
He was a friend of mine and lived close to me. Every house on my block had a foreign last name.....me Hungarian and my mother did not speak any English either as she was from Budapest Hungary.
Times were tough those days as I look back but then again as a little kid I never had toys like kids have today.
When you don't have some things that never existed life still goes on and a person manages some how.
We had a basement and my dad bought a bushel of apples from a farmer that came by with his horse and wagon. That was a partial fridge for us along with the ice box upstairs in the kitchen. Mom would hang the sign in the window showing what lb of ice she wanted from the horse drawn wagon iceman. Each corner showed a different number re what ice was desired.
Back in 1971 I took the wife and my kids on a vacation and showed them the house my dad built.....where I fell backwards down the steps into the basement. The door was flat on the floor those days and it was open and I fell into the basement.
Told them about what I'm describing here but it just went in one ear and out the other.....such is life they would never have to experience.
My Dad was born in Ontario, Canada , in 1897. He served in the Canadian Army, in France from 1915 to 1919. At the end of the war, he stayed in Belgium, to be a POW camp guard, for German soldiers. He got extra pay and rations. When his year of camp duty was over, the Canadian Government offered him a chance to attend the Rolls Royce factory, to be trained as a RR mechanic, and driver. This course lasted 18 months, but that was the foundation for his future life.
When he returned to Canada, he was immediately hired by the Eaton family ( think the Vanderbilts in the USA ) as their RR mechanic and driver. He worked for them for 20 years, and then started his own RR repair and service shop in Toronto. He was continually employed, or operated his own business, for the rest of his life. He died at age 83 in 1980. The business was sold, and the proceeds assured my University education and further career.
My point ? Not everyone suffered during the depression. My Aunt, who was my Father's sister, was a registered nurse, and she bought good houses, in Toronto during the depression , for back taxes. By the 1950's she owned 22 houses, all rented out to families. She died in 1980, worth a few million dollars. She had money, due to her employment, and used it to secure her own future.
By the way, during the 1930's NONE of the banks in Canada failed, due to our strict banking laws about loans and having actual cash on hand , to back the bank's dealings. Even during the recent problems in 2008 in the USA, banks in Canada were unaffected.
Whenever I think times are bad, I think back to the Great Depression, when things were really bad. I think a hard time today is if my Internet connection is down for a day.
Anyway, I can't really remember hearing storing from relatives on how they survived the Great Depression. My parents were little kids just born in the 30s. To a Milennial today, studying the Depression is probably like studying ancient Greece.
So, we all know the stock market crashed in 1929, there was massive unemployment, Franklin D Roosevelt was elected president and enacted programs to help push the country out of the Depression, ect, ect.
Rather than debate the political side of what FDR did or didn't do, did the programs help or hurt, give some personal tales of the Great Depression, from stories passed on by grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles.
I still have ration coupons from WW2 from my wife's mom. They lived through the Great Depression as kids. I have pictures ( well negatives on glass from the turn of the century of their family living in tents in the wilderness as if they were pioneers. I guess they sort of were)
I had tons of respect for that lady.
Thanks for the stories, they are very interesting reading.
The only thing my dad told me was growing up in Detroit and remembering the iceman still had a horse drawn wagon. Him and his little friends would follow the ice wagon with their tongues hanging out hoping to catch drops of water from the melting ice.
My Grandfather often talked about how he deposited his paycheck in the bank the Friday before the banks closed. He was a little late, the bank was closing, but he knocked and the guard let him inside. As he deposited his paycheck, he thought to take out a little more than he usually did for household expenses. That Monday, they awoke to the banks closing! Fortunately, GF had some money saved, hidden in the house, and he owned his house, free and clear. He lost everything he had in the bank. He often said you can't eat a bankbook! After that, he didn't trust banks, either, and hid most of his money in his house.
Shortly after the banking debacle, GF got laid off from his job. He was a Master Mechanic for a Detroit Auto firm. He walked home to save the bus fare, and found a line of men, waiting for something, so decided to wait to see what it was all about. Then they said all men 6 ft tall and over step forward, the rest they weren't interested in. GF and about 4 others got employed, driving a trolley bus for DSR---Detroit Street Railways. He found out why they wanted tall men----the cables to the trolleys would slip several times a day, and they needed drivers tall enough to reach the lines to fix them. Many got electrocuted that way, guess GF survived. He'd never driven anything in his life before that, not a car, let alone a trolley car. They asked him his work history, he said he'd worked for the B&O railroad, which is where he apprenticed as a mechanic. They said if you can drive a train, you can surely drive a streetcar! Well, he never said he drove a train, just said he worked for the RR. He figured they could only fire him, what did he have to lose? So, he drove a streetcar for about 3 years!
Meanwhile, GM tended a garden, and could make stews out of nothing---bones from the butcher, etc. During the Depression GF started his own business, buying machines for pennies on the dollar. He started in his basement, then expanded to a shop he built. He never returned to the auto industry, he made a good living from his own business. Too bad he lost trust in banks, he could have expanded his business with loans, etc, but that wasn't his way....
My mother managed to graduate high school in 1937, although most of her friends had to drop out to help with family finances. Mother also was able to purchase a high school ring. I still have it, its 14K gold, must have really been a purchase back then! She loaned out the ring to several of her friends looking for work, they simply lied and said they'd graduated high school. Back then, you could only purchase a HS ring if you actually graduated. Unlike today, you can buy just about any school ring if you have the cash! That ring was pawned many times to help a young lady get settled, employed, housed, etc. Back then, friends were true friends, not mooches, and the ring was always returned. Like I said, I now have it, its a cherished possession, but I would pawn it if truly necessary, that seemed to be its purpose!
My father and his sister were both teachers in rural Appalachia during the Depression, they often worked just for room and board. They bought their students Christmas presents. My aunt kept a journal, they bought each girl a hairbow, each boy a pocketknife, and every child some candy. That was a lot back then, and for some their only Christmas.
Dad sold a hog to get money for his sister's high school ring, along with a graduation dress, which was difficult to come by then. Sounds like the Waltons, WDYT? Oh, I also have her HS ring, I feel privileged to own it.
I grew up hearing these and other stories, glad to share them with others
years ago, one of my friends was joking on a maintenance guy at a college,,,he was picking up garbage,
I told him,,their is honor in all work, and give the guy some credit,,he's taking pride in his work,,
my friends attitude irked me,, he said he could never see himself doing that for work
and this is something most of us cant relate to, the disgrace , the humiliation, the desperation, pride, hunger,survival mentality,
to go from a decade of depression and disgrace to ww2
and win the wars on different fronts,,,is amazing... the determination, grit , and character of people .. back then,,,amazing
I think that's one of the main differences between then and now.....honest work was considered honorable, no disgrace in earning your own way. My GF was a Master Mechanic and tool & die maker who eventually built his own business, but he also drove a trolley bus, mucked out barns, shoveled coal, no honest work was beneath him. The only thing beneath him and those of his generation was sitting on his behind collecting govt dole.
Will give a little past history along with a little education for some that are not aware of the changes of past.\\
Between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie is the Welland Canal connecting both lakes. They are at a different height (level) as such ships were raised or lowered in the canal between locks that were filled with water to raise or pumped out to lower the ships. Back then there were 8 or 9 locks as I recall. Since then the NEW Canal was built eliminating most of the locks as I was told by family.
At the Lake Erie end was Port Colborne bridge and down a wee bit was the Jack Knife Bridge (Humberstone). The brick school I referred too was about a good block from the bridge and on my last visit it was gone and a large Apt complex in it's place.
As a little tyke lived at the edge of town next to the main road going towards Buffalo. My dad shot a rifle bullet into a pigs head...jumped in with a knife to cut it's throat for bleeding etc. About a mile up the road was a farm house where we got some of our fresh milk. During this time period there were barnstormers (WW1 Pilots) that flew bi wing planes from town to town giving rides for a small fee. My dad paid $1.50 as I recall for me to have a ride. The plane circled Port Colborne and I could look down and see the town bridge along with the huge smoke stack from the nickel plant in town. Dad worked at that plant. Smoke stack is long gone now. Living in LA Calif saw a picture in the newspaper showing it being demolished.
A cousin of mine worked for the Welland Canal as a bridge operator and on my last visit had a chance to ride up the bridge (in Port Colborne) being raised for a passing ship.
In the 30's a grain ship tied to the dock sank in the canal a few yards from that Port Colborne bridge. I rode my bike by there many times going over the bridge to check any mail at our PO box.
Have to refill my coffee cup...gotta go.
EDIT: Almost forgot. The barnstormers plane that I rode in crashed two days later on landing in the farmers field. Wheel hit a hole and the engine/prop went into the ground and a man rider got a broken leg.
Last edited by Steve Bagu; 07-10-2014 at 10:39 AM..
Reason: Add info
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That ring was pawned many times to help a young lady get settled, employed, housed, etc. Back then, friends were true friends, not mooches, and the ring was always returned. Like I said, I now have it, its a cherished possession, but I would pawn it if truly necessary, that seemed to be its purpose!
