Milly continues her history of the depression. See Part 1 in the last prior post. I scanned the original but then couldn't electronically copy the PDF, so this is copied verbatim. SRS
During all this time I never heard any criticism of the government; people were extremely patriotic in those years. Possibly they did not complain because they were ill-informed. The news media as it is today certainly did not exist then, i.e. radio, television, news every hour on the hour. It our own community Franklin Delano Roosevelt was hailed as the new savior..the New Deal promised great things and things did seem to start rolling along and improving for us after he came into power. My older brother got a job helping the maintenance man in an apartment house on the east side of Chicago. My second brother acquired a job as a paperboy. If we ran short on clothing there was a "welfare box" in the office at the school, and we could just go in and help ourselves to a new sweater (used, that is) without signing any papers for it. Because I was so underweight I was placed in the "Fresh Air Roiom" at school. For twenty-five cents a week I ate breakfast and lunch and an afternoon snack at school. Our classes were held in a room with all the windows open, summer and winter, and we wore woolen, hooded jackets to keep warm. In the afternoons we had to set up portable cots and supposedly take naps and rest. I spent my time memorizing the multiplication tables and trying to figure out ways to get out of that stupid room, because I figured it was some kind of a "sub-normal" room. They did give us all our innoculations and vaccinations free, and we were taken to the Chicago Municipal Heath Clinic to have our teeth checked and fixed, free.
The public parks were open during this time, and you could buy a hot shower there if you had 5 cents and your own soap and towel. I used to see lines of people there, waiting to get in to shower. The libraries were kept open, and we three older kids read avidly, all the time. The Salvation Army moved into an empty building and had hot soup kitchens going the clock-around. Mostly old men could be seen standing in line with their tin cans, waiting for the hot, but skinny soup. With all the poverty there were always the drunks...they drank anything. My Dad told us once about a man that drank Witch Hazel Hair Tonic, because it had a small percentage of alcohol in it.
No one that I ever knew of left the country because of the poverty. After all, the irish I lived with knew poverty for what it really was. There was a strong feeling of cooperation amongst all, because there was always someone that had it a little bit worse than you did. At Christmas the Salvation Army gave our family a pass to g0 to the Armory in Chacago one year, and we were all allowed one present. (I chose a tiny set of dishes which I had for years and years) and my folks were given a box with a roasting hen in it and some coffee and hard candy, nuts, etc. We also were each given an orange, and to this day when I small an orange being peeled it reminds me of Christmas.
Our classrooms were extremely crowded...frequently we had one teacher teaching 48 kids...seated in six rows of eight. A lot of kids dropped out of school because of lack of clothing, food, etc,. and then when I was in the eighth grade there was a big influx of older kids back into the school to try and graduate so that they could go on to high school or vocational training of some sort. I don't remember if there was an advertising campaign initiated to promote this or just how they got the older ones back in school, but when I graduated [from the 8th grade] there were quite a few 18 year olds in my class.
Don't let anybody kid you that it was better off in "the good old days." Income taxes from the Federal and State level are a very necessary evil. My parents did not own their own home for many years; just kept paying on it and trying to keep their heads above water. When the house was paid for my Dad finally bought a car. We were all teen-agers by then. My brothers were highly intelligent and should have had the opportunity to attend a college of some sort...they did not get this opportunity; they were expected to get a job and start paying board and room, so that my mother could quit working in the dry-cleaning plant; which they did. At that time scholarships were practically unheard of. If you got one, you had to know somebody.
Things are better now in many ways. The public is better educated in one way or another, and better informed. People are beginning to use (and abuse) their rights as American citizens. it is agood for them to criticize the government, because it keeps our representatives on their toes when they realize that they are iun the limelight. Our economy is such that we expect our children to attain some higher degree of learning than just high school. There is money to provide braces for crooked teeth, flying lessons (unheard of!) golf and bowling sessions, prepared foods...the list is endless.
I have skipped around from pillar to post and typed this just as it came to mind. Hope you can make some kind of sense out of it, and that it reqaches you in time for your class.
It is now 1: a.m., and your Dad has promised to mail this before 7:30 a.m. We had much company over the weekend, and that is why I am so slow about getting this finished. If you want me to mail the picture of our classroom with all the kids in it I will.
You left Eric's Easter basket here and I forgot to send it along with the Martins when they brought the bike over. They are fine people and your Dad and I enjoy visiting with them.
Bye-bye for now, love you and the boys. Mom
[There is an ink spot on the original letter annotated with a comment: "curses!"]
No comments:
Post a Comment