engine of souls | forum 3

mre · Senior Member

Assignment #13: Great Depression Part II

Matthew Wasilowski · Veteran Member

For the project I'll be John Beecher. :)

Cara · Veteran Member

Jerome Zerbe

Cara · Veteran Member

There were supposed to be hearts after his name, jsyk

Justin BRAGA · Veteran Member

For the project, I'll be doing Kansas Governor Alfred "Alf" Landon.

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Thursday 4th of March 2010 05:23:33 AM

courtney · Veteran Member

I will be Dorothy Bernstein.

felicity · Veteran Member

Hey guys, I guess I'll be Peggy Terry

Sarah Flood · Veteran Member

For the project I will do Edgar "Yip" Harburg

Arthur · Veteran Member

hi there

i'm Doc Graham

bleh

AWHBRY · Veteran Member

ello chumps 'dis 'ea be Larry Van Dusan! evileye

Savanna · Veteran Member

I shall assume the idenity of Eileen Barth

Matthew Wasilowski · Veteran Member

Soooo, A block

any ideas for our story, like how all these people meet?

theaa · Veteran Member

i'm going to do max for the project

Charlene · Veteran Member

I'll be Robin Langston then. I originally opted for Chavez, but I don't want to be responsible for tarnishing his immaculate image.

--

I lived in Hot Springs, Arkansas for most of my childhood and teenage years, a strange love child of Rural and Urban. I lived with my parents until I was seventeen years of age. My father was a restaurant owner who wore the pants of the family while my mother was a teacher, but not officially. Father prevented her from getting a real job, thus she became our teacher and taught us how to read. We read books from Douglass to magazines like Time. I recall receiving a book on the great Charles Lindbergh for Christmas of 1930, two years after the Stock Market Crash of 1928, from mother. Charlie was the modern day Apollo, he rode his plane across the sky like Apollo rode his chariot. My mother would always tell me I would ride a plane and I always dreamt that I would write my father's name on the sky, even if he was illiterate. But that possibility was impossible to achieve in reality. I didn't had possess the good-looks and that signature blond hair, blue eyes and white skin often associated with Charlie or Apollo. I had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark skin; inheritened from my enslaved ancestors.

The Great Depression further clouded the dream of ever becoming a pilot.
Money was scarce during the Great Depression. Yet food and spirituality was abudant. It wasn't the Christian kind of spirituality, but the universial spirituality that enabled me to anticipate the needs of others and brought out the goodness of our hearts. My father's restaurant typically served to the black community and the community in Hot Springs wasn't similar to that of urban cities, say for example, Chicago. They were whites living the community as well and most were unemployed as well and often mingled. I still recall a sheriff pawning his radio for ten dollars from my father. The fact that a white man was asking for money from a black man burned into my memory forever. While the restaurant typically catered to blacks, it often went beyond racial boundaries, serving to white folks as well. Any person could walk into the restaurant and receive a hamburger for a nifty nickel or appreciate a hearty meal for a shiny quarter.

Yet, racial tension was still evident. Schools remained segregated and City Hall still gripped the reins of the black community through money. Some of us would read the Defender about the rape case of Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, two women who wrongly accused those nine Scottsboro boys. Racial prejudice was indeed still rampant.

Yet the community saw some light of opportunity. We waited on Roosevelt, the "Great White Father" and fortunately, some of us young men found some opportunity through the WPA and were introduced to other forms of work besides farming or labor, such as office work.

During the Great Depression, everyone, whether white or black, red or yellow, were poor. While racial tension was evident, we shared a common situation: poverty. While I was still unable to pursue my dream of becoming a pilot; Today, I go through the main course of life as a social worker, with a side dish of jazz.

-- Edited by Charlene on Sunday 7th of March 2010 01:51:56 PM

Arthur · Veteran Member

Doc Graham.......

During the Great Depression, when men were men and women were glad of it, I was a conman who made a living off of cheating the system. I worked, lived, and struggled along with every one else in America. In an economy as bad as it was, and in my case with a missing arm, and honest living was almost impossible to maintain. Being a conman and a deceitful bootlegger is what kept me from starving.

Around the mid to late 20’s, I also made some good money off of a career in boxing which at times really made me quite wealthy, but after buying food and getting family members out of jail, there wasn’t enough money for me to be happy. I was lucky to have such opportunities during the depression, yet they still barely sustained me.

I think that the reason our nation was able to survive such an event, is that we were strong and not afraid to get our hands dirty. It was pure patriotism and the will to live that kept us from killing each other and even ourselves.

The entire reason that we are dealing with this is because of that double-crossing Roosevelt. He couldn’t do anything right. He was experimenting with the country and making the most stupid decisions. He was more useless than a broken urinal. Also, men were out of work because these Dumb Doras were snatching up all the jobs and men couldn’t even put food on the table. America had come such a long way, and then every one lost their ambition. No one fought for what was right.

Even though sometimes I feel sorry that I was a conman and could have possibly made someone else’s job harder for them, I did what I needed to in a country that seemed not to care. I’m still alive aren’t I, so I did the right thing and that was self preservation.

Notice my use of 20's Slang!!!! (highlighted in pink)

I'm working with Thea..... So Thea if you see this, we need to get this story written soooooooon!!!!!!!!! biggrin

-- Edited by Arthur on Sunday 7th of March 2010 09:46:32 AM

Charlene · Veteran Member

Arthur wrote:

I'm working with Thea..... So Thea if you see this, we need to get this story written soooooooon!!!!!!!!!

May I join you two then?

-- Edited by Charlene on Sunday 7th of March 2010 12:27:08 PM

AWHBRY · Veteran Member

imm working on my stufff now so cara we def need to collaborate soon :)

Arthur · Veteran Member

Charlene, yeah you can join.....most certainly!

biggrin

mre · Senior Member

Can't wait to read them!

Justin BRAGA · Veteran Member

Alfred M. Landon

Biography

My name is Alfred Mossman Landon, but you can call me Alf for short. I was born on September 9, 1887 in West Middlesex Pennsylvania. I spent most of my youth life living in Marietta, Ohio, before moving to Kansas with my family at the age of seventeen. Kansas is really where my career began. I thank that good old state of mine for uplifting me to where I am and for what I have been able to do. I would graduate from the University of Kansas and originally pursued a career in banking. However, soon I would become an entrepreneur in the petroleum industry when in 1912 I opened up my own company in Independence, Kansas. However, when war broke out in Europe, from what we know as the Great War, I felt it to be an absolute duty to serve my country. Although it was a bloody war, I served our nations colors proudly as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army, enduring such ordeals in the war such as chemical warfare. However prior to leaving war, I should tell that I did spark my political career. I was of great help to Theodore Roosevelt in his 1912 campaign as a Progressive candidate to the Presidency of the United States. I still model after “Teddy” today and his style of being a Progressive Republican, or as we called back in the day a “Bull-Moose.” Now, after I returned from war, I did stay in the oil industry which by 1929 would make me a millionaire. However, did always did stay tied to my Progressive Republican ideology. I served as a private secretary for the Governor of Kansas in 1922, which I have to say was quite remarkable considering the fact that I would eventually hold that same office.

Throughout the 1920’s, I would be known as a leader among the liberal base of the Republican Party. In 1928, I was elected leader of the Kansas State Republican Party where I helped state Republicans get elected as well as helping the Hoover Presidential Campaign pick up votes in my state of Kansas. In 1932 I decided to run for Governor of my state and luckily one, myself being the only Republican Governor elected that year. As governor I cut taxes and successfully balanced the budget. To my surprise, after I gave a howling speech at the Republican National Convention in 1936 in favor of removing the gold standard and supporting social security, I was chosen on the first round of ballots. I was proud of such an accomplishment; however it became clear to me that the Republican Party was desperate to be Roosevelt for nominating someone who actually supported the New Deal. Now I would like to make it clear, I did support the New Deal, just not how it was run. President Roosevelt, whom I did not fear unlike my other Republican counterparts, ran an administration filled with corruption in regards to running the New Deal, and assumed unconstitutional amounts of power in doing so as an executive. Now this of course being my opinion, but I feel that I could have ran New Deal programs better and I certainly would not have supported the ideology of deficit spending presented by John Maynard Keynes, which Roosevelt spoke so fondly of. Unfortunately, however, that message did not seem to resonate with the people. I had the backing of two-thirds of the nation’s newspapers and a scientific poll done by the Literary Digest, but not the people, and that is what counts. I ended up losing in the biggest blowout since 1820, by a count in the electoral college of 523-8. Although I accomplished very little in that election, I was at least credited for taking my great loss charismatically. I certainly did credit President Roosevelt in his populist ways of attracting the people to vote for him and personally I think that as we stand here in 1971, I think he would be a conservative compared to the views of those in Congress today, while at that time some regarded him as a socialist.

After the election, I finished my remaining months in office serving as the Governor of Kansas and left I left politics as a career for good and went back into the oil industry. Although I would still be and still am to this day and avid Republican. Many ask me how I can be a Republican if I am a Progressive as well. In response I tell them that my record as Governor of Kansas showed me to be a fiscal conservative, in line with Republican views, however I do believe that there is a time and a place to help the people in need of this great country making me a social justice progressive. . Certainly I believe that in this welfare state that we call the United States, there can and has to be a compromise between capitalism and socialism. Call me a compromiser like the late Senator Henry Clay, but that’s what I’ve always been and what I always will be.

Issues

Economic Power- As a millionaire and entrepreneur in the oil industry, it worries me that President Roosevelt, is creating government industries in the energy field like he did under the Tennessee Valley Authority Act. I worry that he may expand this government take over and harm my business.

Racism- As a civil rights advocate, it bothers me to see that President Roosevelt has failed to sign anti-lynching and anti-poll tax legislation that might just prevent or lessen the effect of segregation in the South. I had hoped that Roosevelt’s failure to answer the call of this call of Southern Racism would attract black votes to me, but in t eh end, I accumulated only 30% of the black vote.

Equality & Justice- Although I am a Republican at heart, I am however Progressive when it comes to social justice issues. Although I am tagged at times as a liberal, I do believe that there is a time and place for the Federal Government to step in to protect the rights and social justice for the common well being. I do support helping the poor and the programs of helping the unemployed, elderly, and disabled through the Social Security Act of 1935 and I also am a support of Woman’s Suffrage. I truly believe that this country can function as a welfare state to protect the equality and social justice of all.

Politics- In regards to the New Deal, I do not fear many of its programs, nor do I fear President Roosevelt’s ideology. I do feel however, that many of these New Deal Plans have been involved corruption that I could manage them better, and that President Roosevelt has over walked his Constitutional boundaries as an executive.

Events

I would like to say that as a wealthy businessman and politician I, personally was minimally affected by the Great Depression. However, many things happened, particularly in my state that had an effect on my and I’ve listed them for you with as description as follows.

• First and foremost, the Dust Bowl had tragic effects on my state even while I was governor. The poor citizens of my state, many with farms destroyed, homes ruined, and some even facing death due to dust pneumonia. As a nation, 9 million acres of land have been left destroyed, thousands upon thousands in my state itself. It saddens me that 3.5 million in the Dust Bowl region have migrated west to areas like California. I did my best as Governor to get relief for the affected people of my state and it made me realize the hardships nature can cause, especially in a time like the Great Depression.

• I was however as governor of Kansas, pleased to see that the Federal Government authorized the Rural Electrification Administration in 1935. Many farmers in my sate struggled without electricity and only in their dreams believed that they would ever be able to power up radios, washing machines, etc. In fact as a nation, only 10% of farmers had electricity. I was glad to see this for my people, in a state largely of farmers that lives were transformed positively.

• As a supporter of woman’s suffrage, I was proud that the first year I was elected governor to see Kansas, in 1932, elect their first woman congresswoman in the state’s history. Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy, whom although she was a Democrat and I vowed to endorse a candidate to defeat her for her support of many New Deal programs I was against, I was proud to see that Kansans had finally decided to put a person of a different gender into office. It made me realize that woman, even in my own state had broken the boundaries of the cult of domesticity, something that I myself as a social justice progressive was glad to witness.

• Finally I would have to say that two events that influenced me during the Great Depression were my election in 1934 to the Governorship of Kansas, me being the only Republican Governor elected that year. Also the fact that I lost every state in the union to President Roosevelt in 1936 except Vermont and Maine. Now other than the fact that showed that people didn’t want anything to do with Republicans, it also showed me that people trusted President Roosevelt and the New Deal and clearly he was a populist.

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Sunday 7th of March 2010 02:59:47 PM

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Sunday 7th of March 2010 03:02:37 PM

AWHBRY · Veteran Member

Larry Van Dusen: (must read or say aloud when reading with ol' southern accent)

Guess you could say im ova the hill a bit, perhaps "seasoned" but there are many of men like me. Men who were just youngins when the great depression changed everything.

As i recall i may not have had exactly a wealthy background but well to do, or enough so to live comfortably. It wasn't until i had reached the age of about 14 that i started noticing a lot of differences. Too many. First the selection of food was becoming limited, and as if dad was drinkin' already he sure was when our portions got smaller, so much to usually a meal or two a day. This dragged on fur a while, where we had to sell bits of furniture here and there. The house became less and less a place of family time as the atmosphere of affection evaporated up and the chimney.

Now, my father wouldn't beat ma physically but they sure got into a rumble 'least twice a day. I believe the worst of it was when i was just turnin' sixteen, you know a boy, comin' into his manhood, or so i though at the time. Pa had lost his job and with this any sense 'a pride he once held. We'd go it all the time about new ideas... whether Roosevelt was right in making relief available or id the people who occupied farms have the right to hold them by force. The tension grew so thick between us a lumberjack in his prime couldn't have hacked through it with their sharpest machete.

Lookin' back now i do feel i was a snip harsh on 'em. I did not resent my father but more regretted how he hadn't been able to provide for his family (this shocked me, confused, and on some level even hurt me). But he was not known for holdin' his rage in during this time - he would go thrashin' about, a-hootin' and a-hallerin'. Like other father figures of the town he was known to just pick up and leave sometimes to find work. It was, for some reason, hard for him to find work, and when he did it would be for maybe a week at a time. Pa was a craftsmen, and so an individualist. I guess the reason he was never able to keep a job was because most of 'em were below him. 'Cause a' this he'd quarrel with the foreman and fight with the boss. Ha, good ol' dad... I always thought it was strange that in such a great time of need for new housing and such that my father didn't have a lot of work, for he was a skilled carpenter. It was a great burden on him one that the whole family carried upon their shoulders.

Bout a year later, aged 17, i didn't see that there was much to stay for so, one day i left. I hitchhiked around, worked various jobs, and like many boys my age hopped rail cars. Boy those were some good times. Although i have to say that poor young man's leg, gettin' squashed on the tracks like an exploding tomato, was not one of those fonder memories...

Some time went by before i could go back on home and check in on 'em. Now i do recall coming back home after many years, things were better. Much better. It was after the Depression and after the war, to me it seemed as though someone, perhaps god himself, had replaced my family with those of a much tender hearted manner. 'My father had turned into an angel' Now i ain't sayin' theys were wealthy but they were makin' it alright. It was nice to see food was no longer an issue. The last meal i'd eaten here we all split one round steak and were obviously still hungry once we'd eaten our ration. Now, there was tenderly cooked roast beef and much left after, long after we were full at that.

But i just want to clarify under other circumstances it would have been out of the norm, unnecessary, and wrong to have left the family as i did, but the truth of the matter was that it probably saved my relationship with them. I wouldn't have done anything different had i the chance to go back and make that decision again.

My generation has been through more than people like to hear. You try tellin' ona this young chaps today, and if their kind enough, they'll pretend to listen... It's sad but i suppose life goes on. It's just that after men like me no one will really know what it was to be alive durin' that time, maybe that's a good thing. But one last thing i do know is - that i am proud of where i have been, what i have done, and that i did it. I have experienced live-altering/exhilarating things. I have organized unions, been on the black list, changed my name more than three times, seen the Memorial day massacre, participated in sit down strikes, and witnessed the revolution of the auto-industry. I have done all this and am only 55 years old. Very lastly i am proud of where i have come to be. You find me now with a beautiful wife still and three loving children, with wisdom in my mind and love in my heart - there could be no better way. My how things do change.

AWHBRY · Veteran Member

that was just the bio, bbl with the rest

courtney · Veteran Member

Dorothe Bernstein

As we all know, the great depression was an ongoing nightmare for many. An abundance of people lost jobs, lost homes, and even lost lives. Although it was a horrible time, not everyone was greatly affected. Very few were not affected and it was those people who needed to try and help to make things better. One person that did as much as she could do was Dorothe Bernstein.

My name is Dorothe Bernstein. I was born in Chicago and lived there for most of my life. I lived in an orphanage on the west side of Chicago on the corner of Albany and 15th. Fortunately I was not greatly affected by the depression. I always had clean clothes, food was never scarce, and I had the opportunity to go to school. Every day I walked to school with many other children through Douglas Park and past 22nd Marshall Blvd. Along the railroad tracks there were men that were in desperate need of food and many other necessities. These men were neither Hoboes nor non working junkies. They were men that were in need for work and could not find any job opportunities. Every Friday I and about one hundred and twenty five other kids would walk to school and bring our unwanted food to the men in brown paper bags. Each bag was the same; it contained mashed sardines sandwiches with mayonnaise on it. I try to help as much as I could but I realize that I was the exception. I was a very lucky girl and I feel like with that one sandwich I was changing the life of a person that was not as fortunate as me. I had this one experience that sticks out so vividly in my head. My friend Louise and I once went to the grocery store. There she asked me if I wanted to stay in the car. I denied and went into the store with her. She was embarrassed because she had to use food stamps. (as we know them today)

I do not take anything for granted because I have experienced firsthand that anything you have can be taken from you in the blink of an eye. I was unfortunate in the sense to have grown up in a orphanage without a family but I am very fortunate that I had a good life with a roof over my head clean clothes, and food on the table.

“you know when you get down so low that you can’t get any lower, theres no place else to go but up. You do either one of two things, you law down and die or pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you start over.”

-- Edited by courtney on Sunday 7th of March 2010 05:44:57 PM

courtney · Veteran Member

More to Come. The grammys Are a bit distracting!

Arthur · Veteran Member

Thea....Charlene.....where are You!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PatriciaC · Member

Ed Paulsen

Biography:

My name is Ed Paulsen and I was born in South Dakota in the year 1912. I have two brother s and a sister. My sister and her husband had a small farm here in South Dakota; I went there to retreat from everything. I was never satisfied staying there I loved being in L.A or even San Francisco. But when I did go back home, I punched cattle for $10 a month. The people out in the west didn’t know what the Crash of ’29 was; we never owned stocks or knew what stocks were. I finished high school in 1930 and moved to L.A but I and my brothers didn’t know how to live in the city. We didn’t know what a soup line was and we never intended on finding out. We had middle class ideas but didn’t have a middle class income. By 1931 we made our way to San Francisco and I tried to find work at the docks or the Standard Oil Company but you had to have a college degree for that. Every morning I would have to wake up at 5 to get down to the waterfront and there would already be thousands of men there. We’d all wait there for a job to come through but we all knew there would only be 3 or 4 positions. After that we’d go to Skid Row and demand for shelter and food but we knew we’d never get any of what we demanded. There would be people there for over 4 blocks long, and every single one of them out of work and didn’t anything more than a dime. Police men on horseback would be there and that’s when the fighting started and that mostly led to killing. Every time you heard someone was going to be looking for help you’d be down at the shore waiting in line at 5 am just like about a thousand other men. Then one day during the winter of ’33, ’34 I walked into a meeting where I saw Upton Sinclair talking. I got a job singing with the quartet that was campaigning with him. During the Sinclair campaign I went to the library, that’s mostly where I got my education. I picked up books there I never thought I would ever pick up and read. Roosevelt was now president and he and the rest of the world was doing so crazy stuff, which I had no idea about. My brothers and me took freight down to Portland and started working on the Bonneville Dam. Then we got on the top of a freight car and we were trying to get to Kansas City but we got caught and had to jump off early. We jumped off in a little town Beatrice Nebraska. We saw these two girls there trying to get food but one of the girls was told she couldn’t eat there because she was colored. That man went after her and nearly killed her, I tripped him hoping to give her more time to get away. When we reached Omaha these men told us to get off the train and go with them. We ended up in a Transient Camp, we got checked in, bathed, and we got a wonderful meal and a room. The next day we were told to meet with a social worker, she gave me a job at a little cold-water college in South Dakota with the National Youth Administration and that’s where the good life started for me. Roosevelt becoming president was one of the best things I got to experience.

Events:

· Roosevelt becoming president because of all the legislations he pasted.

· Great Depression: Kept many out of work, like me, and caused riots when there were only 1 or 2 jobs and over a thousand men fighting for it.

· TVA, Tennessee Valley Authority: Gave me a job for a little while.

· NYA, National Youth Administration: Gave me a job and started a good life for me.

Issues:

· Equality: No one should have to wait in a soup line or sleep on the street. Everyone should be able to afford food and have decent shelter.

· Politics: Without Roosevelt becoming president and his New Deal plan, I wouldn’t be living a good life.

· Racism: No one should be denied the right to eat somewhere because of their skin color.

· Patriotism: Everyone should have faith in our country and know everything we end up good in the end, I had faith and now I’m living a good life.

PatriciaC · Member

arthur i ahve no one to do my story with can i join you and the girls ?

theaa · Veteran Member

sorry arthur! i didn't have internet today and i just got home now. i'm posting my bib now, email me with your ideas on how they met?
sorry again.

ohh, email : althea.sylvia@yahoo.com

AWHBRY · Veteran Member

Events:

On both a national and global scale much has and is happening during my lifetime on this Earth, and I was hit hard by the Great Depression - and you at first it may have seemed a bad thing, and though nationally it was horrifying, i am on good terms on how it resulted and what it resulted in for me personally.

World War I happened just before i was a zygote in my mother's womb. Though i dodn't witness any of it personally i have come to see just how big this tragic war had been. Near all of Europe had allied with one or the other and in doing so when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia - France, Britain, Russia, Germany and eventually the U.S., Japan and Italy were all brought into the mess. The war had thousands of different results/affects both negative and positive on people of near all regions of the world. The most devastating obviously being the death toll, psychological, emotional, and physical effects it had on people. My parents, evidently, was the generation that dealt with it the most ... my uncle had died somewhere in Europe during that Great War, my mom still hasn't accepted it... Although i may have not seen the war myself its effects are evident throughout society still, and will remain so for many years..

WOW no more alcohol? In 1919 i was still very young but i remember it clearly. The day father found out he had a fit. He swore for an hour straight then went out to buy the last of liquor at the store. He came back and announced that he wasn't the only one so angry so he joined a new social club that would be hidden, called a speakeasie. I asked to go with him when i was about 9 or so but he forbade it.

And the ladies sing The next year, whew i had never seen my mom so ecstatic, i think she was happier than the day i was born, i swear it, 1920 the year of the new frontier as my mother called it. The nineteenth amendment granted suffrage to women. Many women that year did not vote, but my mum did! she was one of the very few, and what surprised me most was that father was content with it all...

New Electricity! As part of the second industrial electricity was brought to homes across the board. Initially we had gotten electricity was i was just a babe but mom didn't purchase many of the gadgets that came out at first. Before we got the fridge when i was about 6 i remember father bringing in huge chiseled ice blocks from somewhere out side where a truck had dropped it off. After that though Ma was able to better preserve the meats and dairy. About two years after the new fridge we got an upgraded laundry washer. It looked so alien, so bizarre... It had this bubble-like front that opened up as a door and you would through your close into this small wooden hole. Then i would watch mama as she twisted this big handle open and poured in some homemade soap. Thinking bout it now it was quite primitive looking when compared to today's steel ones.

What you do when you runaway: for over a year i just roamed the streets of colorado and later texas, i often hitchhiked or rode on a box car, those were quite fun. But i grew tired of not having a substantial roof over my head so i became a social worker in the thirties which put me in Kansas City. In kansas city i organized unemployed councils, participated in strikes, and arrested several times

Memorial Day Massacre: Occurred in 1937 and was also known as the "the little steel strike". Republic Steel CO. refused to follow U.S. Steele in signing a union contract. This resulted in a strike that had a violent ending whichin 10 people were killed by police bullets. On the following memorial day SWOC (steel workers organizing Committee) gathered in thousands where the strike had taken place and marched across the prairie to the Republic steel mill. I had helped organize the march...

Issues:

1) Justice : The sole reason i became a social worker was to help average people like my self to not have to go through what my father had... he had had such bad luck because there was a false cover sheet of prosperity blanketing the U.S. and once unveiled the sight was a horrifying bottomless pit. I wanted to help those who had fallen into that pit. I wanted to fight for them and advocate their need for work and reasonable at that - some bosses were real tyrants and demanded crazy tasks. My goal was to shut them down and provide safe reliable work for citizens.

2/3) Gender and Equality: Before the Great Depression your gender (as well as skin color) often determined your pay. Even if you were a white protestant female coming from a wealthy background you would only receive about half of what a male got for performing the same task. However when the stock market crashed & the entire world economy spiraled out of control this slowly began to change. Popping up here and there were jobs available to women where the same salary was offered to men. Though many traditional men distasted the practice there wasn't much protest for desperate times call for new unprecedented measures. Gender did however still separate the types of jobs available to women, for example they were never allowed in anything like the police force or god forbid, the military. NO no they assumed teachers, factory workers, maids, healthcare and the like...

4) Politics: One of the many things that came between my dad and i was the politics of Roosevelt's policies and his administration. My father disapproved of Roosevelt taking away the gold standard. Her argued that it would cause great inflation ad that he would be sorry. I disagreed in saying that the paper money would act as a more immediate way of relief and easier payment.

AWHBRY · Veteran Member

is anyone able to get this story done tonight.... ?

theaa · Veteran Member

MAX NAIMAN
In my teens, I traveled through several states as a farmer to quench my thirst for a sense of adventure and a change of scenery. I worked under a farmer who beat me and I received no pay, but he actually strengthened me as a man. It showed me how hard it is to go through life, especially as a farmer, looking for a profit in America.. I received my lawyer’s license in 1932, the hardest year of the great depression. People could barely afford a lawyer to defend them, therefore I did not make much profit. I did receive a profit with the victims in my cases however. They were often victims of evictions, robberies, or riots. Sometimes my clients would come off their case as not guilty due to insanity and a good jury. I would often also have clients that were arrested or had gotten into fights with police officers and had habeas corpus suspended. During these troublesome times, people were depressed and on edge about where their life was heading and everyone had their own story to tell. I simply helped them with their story so it could be continued instead of stalled by being jailed. My clients were often of simple means but brought new perspectives to my life. With each new eviction and arrest, I became more knowledgeable of other’s struggles knowing that I had the ability to help them. Even though I was paid barely any money, I loved my profession and wouldn’t trade in anything that happened to me during my first few years as a lawyer. I was better off than many other people during this time and I enjoyed having a simple life where the littlest adventure would intrigue me. The little things in life would be huge to me during the Great Depression and made me appreciate my life. My clients during this time of change pioneered what life is now and by speaking out, they created what life is now. Today’s generation owes it to my clients who did what they thought was right and just and needed my help to get their word through to the bigger powers in front of them.

Arthur · Veteran Member

hey thea i just emailed you with some story ideas

theaa · Veteran Member

i think so, trying to do that now...

Matthew Wasilowski · Veteran Member

My name is John Beecher. I was born 22 January, 1904. I am poet and journalist who writes about the South, the civil rights movement, and the Great Depression. I am also involved with the labor movement. I come from a family that is full of abolitionist. I am even a descendent of Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. As a child I moved from New York City to Birmingham, Alabama because my father got a job for U.S Steel. I worked in the steel mills as a teenager.

In 1925 I published my‘Report to the Stockholders’. It was mainly about the way businesses were run in regard to workers rights. It stated:

“he fell of his crane
and his head hit the steel floor and broke like an egg
he lived a couple of hours with his brains bubbling out
and then he died
and the safety clerk made out a report saying
it was carelessness
and the craneman should have known better
from twenty years experience
than not to watch his step
and slip in some grease on top of his crane
and then the safety clerk told the superintendent
he’d ought to fix that guardrail”

This shows my discontent for the way factories were run during his time. This is understandable as I was injured myself while working for a steel company.

One of my stories called ‘To Live and Die in Dixie’ showed the racial tension in the South during his time. It stated

“Our gang
Laid for the kids from ******town
We’d whoop from ambush chunking flints
And see pale soles
Of black feet scampering
Patched overalls and floursack pinafores
Pigtails with little bows
Flying on the breeze
More than birds
To chunk at
Birds
Were too hard to hit”

This defiantly shows the racial tension in the South. I, being pro-civil rights, was disgusted by the way blacks were treated in the South.

Justin BRAGA · Veteran Member

*Director's Note*
This is the script created by Justin Braga, who researched Governor Alfred "Alf" Landon, Courtney Miranda, who researched Dorothe Bernstein, and Matthew Wasilowski, who researched John Beecher. Not only will you notice some 1920's slang in the script, thanks to Mr. Everett's links, but also actual exerpts from stories, poems, and the acceptance speech itself. We will be glad to act it out in class. So without further a due, enjoy the play!

The Republican Surprise of 1936

Cast Key

A=Alf Landon

J=John Beecher

D=Dorothe Bernstein

M=Moderator of the Convention

CM=Campaign Manager to Landon

C=Crowd

()=Stage Directions

The Script

(The evening of July 23, 1936, in the State House in Topeka, Kansas)

M: My fellow Americans, I would like to personally thank you for gathering tonight in the State House of Kansas on this summer evening to celebrate the nomination of Alfred Landon as our party’s candidate in this year’s election. Governor Landon, my friends, will be the next President of the United States.

C: (Cheers)

M: Thank you! Thank you! Please sit down! Tonight ladies and gentlemen, we celebrate our party’s candidate and his soon to be victory. At the convention in June we nominated Governor Landon to preserve this party of Lincoln, and as Governor of this great state he has done so proud. We nominated him and we shall lead him to victory over Roosevelt!

C: (Cheers)

M: However, before Governor Landon speaks, which I know is the moment you all have been waiting for; we will call on some speakers. The first being a Democrat;

C: (Boos)
M: Please, please! He has endorsed Governor Landon! I am proud to introduce to you the former Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic Presidential Nominee, Governor Alfred Smith!

C: (Cheers)

(Meanwhile, in the back room)

CM: Alf tonight is your night! Now as your advisor, I am handing you a speech that will attract the conservative base of our party whom is rebellious against this rubbish New Deal. Now you can stop that progressive garbage and win this election.

A: Stop razzing me! I know what to do. I’ve worked very hard for this.

CM: Now you’re on the trolley!

(Door knocks)

CM: I’ll get it. Hold it right there Alf!

J: Hi, I am John Beecher; may I speak with Governor Landon for a moment?

CM: Who is God’s good name are you?

A: Please don’t razz him. I will speak with you Mr. Beecher.

J: Thank you Governor.

CM: (Sighs) I’ll step out here.

A: Mr. Beecher it is nice to see you, I did receive your letter, but however you are a bit late.

J. Sorry got caught up in a bit of a dust storm on my way over from Chicago.

A: I see. Now I have to be honest with you, I don’t know much of your work; can you describe to me what you have done?

J: Well I am a descendant of abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe and I have authored famous stories such as “Report to the Stockholders” and “To Live and Die in Dixie.”

A: Impressive, I do believe that I have heard of those novels, read me some lines from them and it might jog my memory.

J: Do you mind?

A: Sure, Governor Smith is a bit of a chirper. I have time.

J: Thank you in “Report to the Stockholders” a famous phrase of lines was ““he fell of his crane
and his head hit the steel floor and broke like an egg
he lived a couple of hours with his brains bubbling out
and then he died
and the safety clerk made out a report saying
it was carelessness
and the crane man should have known better
from twenty years experience
than not to watch his step
and slip in some grease on top of his crane
and then the safety clerk told the superintendent
he’d ought to fix that guardrail”

While in “To Live and Die in Dixie”, I wrote: ““Our gang
Laid for the kids from ******town
We’d whoop from ambush chunking flints
And see pale soles
Of black feet scampering
Patched overalls and flour sack pinafores
Pigtails with little bows
Flying on the breeze
More than birds
To chunk at
Birds
Were too hard to hit.”

A: Those are some powerful words, Mr. Beecher.

J: Well Governor, as you know from my letter, I am a strong Civil Rights and labor supporter, as well an exposé of the Great Depression and its tragedies.

A: Now what is it that you wanted to speak with me about before I go?

J: Ah, yes, Governor, civil rights. As you know, President Roosevelt has been reluctant to support anti-lynching, anti-poll tax, and all together anti-segregation legislation. Now I am not one to endorse candidates Governor, but I am asking for you to advocate for Civil Rights unlike the President and try to rally the Republicans around equal rights for all, no matter what race they are.

A: Mr. Beecher, no offense, but you are preaching to the choir here. You know that I myself am a social justice Progressive, as well as the fact that I am seeking the black vote. This is the party of Lincoln. I am here to bring it back to that standard by re-attracting the black vote. However, I do realize that may be difficult, considering the fact that the President has offered black New Deal jobs. But have no fear, Mr. Beecher; I don’t need to carry the South. I will support equal race rights. Now if that is all you came to talk about I must ask you to leave, for you are hopefully satisfied with my position on your issue, but I must prepare for my speech.

(Landon walking to the door is stopped by Beecher)

J: Forgive me Governor, but that is why I am here.

A: What do you speak of? I have already answered your concerns, have I not?

J: Well one of them, but your speech is my concern.

A: My speech, but it has already been written.

J: I realize that and I am sorry the inconvenience, but I know that you are going to deliver a conservative speech to attract the anti-New Deal base of the Republican Party. I need you to change the speech.

A: Change the speech? How selfish of you to ask. And besides, you do know that I do support some of the New Deal.

J: Yes, Governor, but I fear not enough of it. A conservative speech may rally the nation against programs for the poor.

A: But…

J: (Interrupts) Just please meet this poor girl and see what I mean.
(Opens Door. Dorothe Bernstein enters)

A: And who might this little sweetheart be that you have dragged from, Chicago you say?

J: Yes from Chicago, her name is…

D: (Interrupts) Dorothe Bernstein. Nice to meet you Governor Landon!

A: Nice to meet you too little girl, or should I say Ms. Bernstein.

D: You can call me Dorothe.

J: You see Governor, Dorothe…

D: (Interrupts) Please, Mr. Beecher, I can tell my own story, after all I have lived it.

A: Dorothe, you can start by telling me why Mr. Beecher has dragged you all the way from Chicago to the State House of Kansas.

D: Well sir, Governor I mean, I am from an orphanage in Chicago, on the corner of 15th and Albany Street, and I am here to tell you of all the hardships people endure in these times. Although I live better than the other orphans, for I have better clothes and food, many others are suffering. I see men and children with torn clothing, and no food. I always try to be kind on Fridays and give my leftover lunch that I take to school to the other hungry children. Governor, please help these people. Stand up for what is right in your speech. Listen to Mr. Beecher and I. Pledge to help the poor and support fair wages for laborers in these hard times. You can change a nation!

A: O my sweet child, I am so sorry, but what am I to do. If it is my speech you want me to change, I simply can’t. I have rehearsed it and all. I can’t just make something up.

D: You know Governor Landon, I always say, “you know when you get down so low that you can’t get any lower, there’s no place else to go but up. You do either one of two things, you law down and die or pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you start over.”

(In the background)

(Crowd Cheers)
A: It is about time for me to go on, I must go. Take care little girl. May God Bless you and your people.

(Landon exits the room)

CM: Alf! There you are! Here is the speech, and as a confidence booster, a newly released scientific poll done by the Literary Digest, shows you in front of Roosevelt. Just knock this speech out of the park, rally the base, and we can win this Presidency!

(Landon sees Dorothe crying)

A: I can’t give this speech. It goes against my values. I am a Republican at heart, but when social justice calls, my progressivism shines through.

CM: What?

M: Ladies and Gentlemen, without further a due, I am honored to introduce to you the Republican Nominee and the next President of the United States, Governor Alfred Mossman Landon!

C: (Cheers)

A: (To the campaign manager) I’m sorry, I can’t read this. (Tears up speech and throws it at the campaign manager)

CM: Alf are you ossified?!

A: Thank you, thank you, please be seated.

A: “Mr. Chairman, Members of the Notification Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I accept the nomination of the Republican Party for the Presidency of the United States. In accepting this leadership I pray for Divine Guidance to make me worthy of the faith and the confidence which you have shown in me.
This call, coming to one whose life has been that of the everyday American, is proof of that freedom of opportunity which belongs to the people under our government. It carries with it both an honor and a responsibility. In a republic these cannot be separated.

Tonight, facing this honor and responsibility, I hope for the gift of simple and straightforward speech. I want every man and woman in this nation to understand my every word, for I speak of issues deeply concerning us all.
We of our Party pledge that this obligation will never be neglected. In extending help, however, e will handle the public funds as a public trust. We will recognize that all citizens, irrespective of color, race, creed or party affiliation, have an equal right to this protection. We would consider it base beyond words to make loyalty or service to party a condition upon which the needy unemployed might obtain help. Those who use public funds to build their political machines, forfeit all right to political consideration from true Americans.

Let me emphasize that, while we propose to follow a policy of economy in Government expenditures, those who need relief will get it. We will not take our economies out of the allotments to the unemployed. We will take them out of the hides of the political exploiters. The question is not as stated by the Administration—how much money the American people are willing to spend for relief. The question is how much waste the American people are willing to stand for in the administration of relief.

The destruction of human values by this depression has been far greater than the American people suffered during the World War. When the depression began millions of dependable men and women had employment. They were the solid citizenry of America; they had lived honestly and had worked hard. They had dealt fairly with the Government which, in turn, had depended upon their support.
Then they found themselves deprived of employment by economic forces over which they had no control. Little by little they spent their life savings while vainly seeking new jobs.

We shall undertake to aid these innocent victims of the depression.
God grant us, one and all, the strength and the wisdom to do our part in bringing these things to pass.” Thank you and God Bless America!

C: (Cheers)

(Landon exits the stage)

CM: Well Alf, I thought your speech at the Convention in Cleveland was bad enough where supported the gold standard and social security, but did you really let out your liberalism tonight. You are a pushover to these liberal maniacs.

A: Pipe down!

(Beecher and Dorothe running over)

J: Congratulations Governor, it was a marvelous speech! Dorothe, is there something that you would like to say?

D: Governor, I don’t understand much politics, but that was amazing. Thank you for standing up for what is right, even though many of your friends won’t be behind you.

A: No, thank you. If my manager was right about one thing tonight, it was that I was a pushover. I don’t mind the New Deal, I just feel that it could be run better with less corruption and stay within Constitutional bounds. Now I am not going to say that I fully agree on everything with the President, but I do believe that a welfare state can function in this grand country of ours and there can be a compromise between capitalism and socialism. And thus, God Bless our great country we call America on this night, now and forever.

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Sunday 7th of March 2010 07:23:29 PM

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Sunday 7th of March 2010 07:24:54 PM

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Sunday 7th of March 2010 07:25:44 PM

-- Edited by Justin BRAGA on Sunday 7th of March 2010 07:35:21 PM

Justin BRAGA · Veteran Member

I just wanted to say that this was the beauty of artistic license and no, Governor Landon really didn't make up his speech right on the spot (or at least I don't think so). However, it was true in 1936 that there was a conflict within not only the Republican Party, but Landon himself to side more with the Conservative base of the Party, or to unleash his social progressive ways. This conflict, although it didn't deal with progressivism, would be seen again as World War II approached and Landon would go against Republican Party values of the time, and attempt to talk the Party out of supporting isolationism as a foreign policy.

Matthew Wasilowski · Veteran Member

John Beecher

Issues

1. Racism, I have tried to bring the issue of racism to the eyes of the American people with my writing. Many of my works such as ‘To live and Die in Dixie’ show the state of racism in the south.

2. Equality, I also want equal rights for all races. During WWII I was in an interracial transport crew. I wrote a book about these experiences called All Brave Sailors.

3. Economic Power, I have tried in my writings, such as “Report to the Stockholders” to show how businesses let their workers get injured and then just forget them and hire new workers. It’s appalling.

4. Prejudice, Almost all my work shows prejudice of some sort. I hope one day there will be no more prejudice thoughts inside the heads of Americans. I hope one day we will all be equal human beings.

Matthew Wasilowski · Veteran Member

Events
Great Depression

The Great Depression greatly pushed me too help those less fortunate. During the Great Depression I was a professor at the University of Wisconsin. As the depression worsened I had less and less students. This caused me to care even more of the labor movement.

Savanna · Veteran Member

My name is Eileen Barthe, I am a case worker.

     I graduated from the university in 1933. I majored in social service administration and I soon became a case worker for the U.S at twenty-one years old. I was prepared to help people who were unemployed, but I was most definatly not prepared for case as large at the Depression. I was still studying immigrant families and my education was just wasnt up with the times. I made some terrible mistakes due to my lack of experience.

    It must have been awfully hard for some people. Most people I should say. Depending of a young woman as their only source of income. As a case worker, I must have seemed more powerful than I actually was. But the power was really out of my control. I was just the messanger of the Agency.

    I feel guilty for what I have and I also fear of what I might lose. I live rather comfortably. I share a nice parement with two other girls and my monthly salary is a decent one of $135. But all that can be taken away in a day. There are constant layoffs at the Agency. I never feel secure enough to live entirly comfortable. The possibility that I might lose my job and have to go on reilf looms over my head everyday.

    Not every case worker feels the way I do. Quite a few are very self-rightous. They look down upon those who come to them seeking help. Just the other day one of my co-workers was saying how she feels people arnt looking hard enough for work. She would say that since she has connections with the big cheese of the Agency. She is also one to not make it easy for clients. Half the time she will give them the icy mitt.

    My clients have been both black and white. Some think that blacks are more...accustomed to poverty but they all say the same thing, "I wouldn't come here if I had work." Then there is the waiting. There is a lot of that in relief offices. Sitting and waiting for things such as food orders. Mostly sitting and waiting in places like warhouses. Sitting and waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting...

    People became angry. And most would vent it out on a case worker. Tensions were high and these people didnt know the source of their trouble. So they took it out on us. I once had to cover an entire city. Work kept me up well into the night and in strange neighborhoods.

    One man, young white male, living with his mother, went mad. It was 1934 and this young man's case worker promised him employment. The CWA was coming in. But being unemployed made the young man so crazy, that he shot his case worker. He dragged his mother to the district office, were he shot the supervisor, clerical worker and finally, he killed his mother and himself.

After that, fear spread among case workers. Bulletins were issed saying case worders could take a suspension on visits. It didnt say that we must not, so I did anyway. Maybe becuase I was young and foolish, but I felt that my clients needed me. I was terrifed, that first time I rang the bell of a house and peered through the dirty windows. The family agreed that what had happened, with the young man killing that case worker, was indeed terrible. But then again, some case workers deserve to be shot. Then the father of the family looked at me and said "But not you Miss Barthe..."

Cara · Veteran Member

Bio

“The Thirties was a glamorous, glittering moment.”

Me!

Personally, I never saw any evidence of this so-called “Great Depression” everyone here seems to be talking about. Ever since I was a kid, my life has always been full of opportunity and luxury. I was a bit spoiled as a kid. My mother would always tell me that it would be a lot easier for me if my breakfast was served to me every morning while I was in bed. So I would always wake up to a roaring fire place and a nice hot breakfast. I was driven to school in my own limousine and my father financed my Yale education. I was a spoiled brat and I loved it.

This was mainly possible due to the fact that my father was the president of the Ohio and Pennsylvania Coal Company in Cadiz, Ohio. When I was older, he offered me the presidency around ‘32 for $12,000 a year. This being an incredible amount of money at the time, I immediately accepted. I spent two weeks in the position and decided it was to depressing (no pun intended) and told my mother I had had it. All of the miners seemed unhappy, with their work, with their pay, and especially with their home life. You see, they all had these slovenly, unfeminine wives who barely decorated their drab homes. I helped bring some happiness into their lives when we’d go out drinking at the bar. Once, a manager even told me, “I never knew what it was like to have fun until I heard your laugh.” I took that as a great compliment.

I had spent many of my formative years doing just that. Having fun, I mean. Before ‘31, my father allowed me an allowance of $300 a month. I decided to go off to Paris to become a painter. I made this decision largely in part due to my love of the arts, but also because I found the prohibition laws extremely annoying. Sadly, this came to an end in 1931 when my father wrote me saying that he was cutting me off of my allowance. As an unemployed painter during this “Depression” I headed back to America and took the first job I was offered, Art Director of Parade magazine. In order to “goose” up this magazine, I invited many celebrities to my own home to take photographs of them with my little Kodak camera. This sort of “celebrity photography” was a huge success and soon I began being invited everywhere to photograph the rich and famous. In 33’ I was offered a position with Town and Country at a wage of $150 a week.
Eventually, I was offered another position at the famous Rainbow Room night club as the staff photographer, all expenses paid. I accepted and immediately celebrities had their faces published in newspapers and magazines left and right. I went on doing this at other various clubs and parties, I was never without an engraved invitation to the latest and greatest event. I’ve taken a picture of everyone from The Duchess of Sutherland and King Paul of Greece, to John Roosevelt, Katherine Hepburn, and Humphrey Bogart. For some reason, the minute I, a photographer, appeared, all the celebrities came. One of my favorite clubs that I worked at was the El Morocco which I still consider one of the classiest places I have ever graced with my presence. Its rumored that it was here that I invented the vodka martini. Like I said, Prohibition was never really my thing. Anyway, at these clubs, we seldom talked about politics or the economy, shoot, most of us had never seen a breadline or any sign of poverty. We remained concerned with who was wearing what and who was with who. Strangely enough, when my photos were published, the readers, many of whom were struggling to stay afloat or unemployed, craved to see the next picture of the high society throwing back a glass of champagne. “These were the dream people we all looked up to, and hoped that we or our friends could sometimes know and be like.” I like to think that I really did my part to make people happy and give them hope that there was still a possible dream to pursue.

Events

Honestly, one of the greatest events I’ve experienced was the repeal of prohibition in 1933. God bless the ratification of the 21st amendment, it was one of the few things FDR did right. The rest of his little “alphabet soup” programs? Crap. They only raised taxes for the affluent and did nothing to help the poverty situation. As for the stock market crash of ‘29, it barely effected me. I didn’t see any consequence until ‘31 when it hit the coal mines. Even then, I continued to live it up in Paris at my father’s expense. In my opinion, the Depression was over by ‘34.

Issues

Economic power: Except for the one point in my life right after my father cut me off, I have never experienced financial hardship. Neither have most of my friends come to think of it. We were always willing to give out large amounts of money if it meant helping with out social status. It was not uncommon for a person to pay $200 to get a good seat at El Morocco. I never really saw any sign of poverty either, perhaps breadlines, for example were in Harlem or in the Village, but never in my section of town.

Racism & Equality: My friends and I don’t even discuss the, “Negro question.” Why should we? They’re barely 1/10th of our nation and really, I think they’re, “going to be stepped on like vermin.” I have had a man-servant, Joseph, for about 30 years now and he’s my closest friend in the world. I don’t think theres anything wrong with his subservient role really.

Gender: I believe women need to be idols of femininity for their men. The coal miners wives? Straight up slovenly, unkempt, dirty and quite frankly disgusting. Their husbands tell me they don’t even want to go to bed with them and I see that is disturbing that a wife could neglect her appearance so much. Plus, they keep their houses so drab, you would think they’d want to put up a plant or something to brighten the place up for their husbands. The women I call my friends are all beautiful and feminine, which is a large reason people like them so much and why they are considered celebrities.

Politics: The whole “New Deal” means nothing but higher taxation. It really didn’t help the poverty situation at all…I don’t know. “God! Look at the crap he (FDR) brought in this country, Jesus!”

Cara · Veteran Member

(Just a bit of a disclaimer, my guy is a bit of a jerk faced pig, so all of that is what he believed with a few morally disturbing direct quotes. Jsyk.)

Cara · Veteran Member

Oh P.S.

Events
(and Issues- Politics)

Another thing I found incredibly annoying was Franklin Roosevelt's patronizing tone on his "fire side chats." "My dear friends..." was so incredibly irritating to me. Personally, "I've never liked politics. I think all politicians are ****s. (sic)" While, yes, I liked Franklin personally, but I think the general American people are to gullible in their blind following of him. He often made himself seem like he, "the great man (was) talking down to us common little herd."

theaa · Veteran Member

In a suburb south of Chicago, the Jennings, a family of five, was ready to leave Sunday morning for their weekly service at church. As they managed to fit the whole family into their Ford, which they were able to buy off a friend for $60, John Jennings noticed a young man looking awkwardly at their house, almost as if it was the only one on the street. John thought nothing of it. They proceeded to go to church.

The young man who happened to only have one arm after a certain “accident”, went by the name of Doc Graham. In the city, Doc was known for his tricks and thievery. As soon as Doc could see the family of fives’ car disappear around a corner, he quickly went to work. He was on a mission and had plenty of experience in the deceitful world of robbery. With a small sliver of wood, some what like a shoe horn, Doc was able to pry one of the back yard windows open and welcome himself in. The outside of the house was average, worn out- looking, but when he stepped in and took a good long panoramic look at the interior, he knew that he had hit the jackpot.

John Jennings was a furniture dealer and had very good taste in home furnishings. After glancing in the refrigerator, which was empty, he went into the formal living room, where there was a very elegant oriental carpet and Victorian style furniture along with a beautiful Tiffany lamp.

At the sight of this, Doc was drooling wondering what treasures awaited him in Darla Jennings’s jewelry box. As he slithered up the stairs, feeling no guilt at all, he found his way into the master bedroom. He approached Darla’s vanity where he expected to see beautiful, large amounts of diamonds, sapphires, and gold. When he got his greedy hands on the jewelry box, he was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was empty.

The reason that Darla’s jewelry box was empty is because the family was very desperate for money. Poor Darla had to sell every last piece of jewelry including her grandmother’s engagement ring which she cherished the most. The money was needed by the family in the bad economy especially after John was laid off when his company went out of business (explaining why all of the new furniture was in the living room. It was all free).

Doc Graham had no idea how much a robbery would negatively impact this family. In his cloud of selfishness and ignorance, Doc kept browsing at wasn’t his.

One thing that Doc Graham failed to do was worry about the neighbors witnessing the robbery. Across the street lived a lawyer who was quite good at his job and knew the law well. His name was Max Naiman. After Max saw Doc in the upstairs window, he knew that his neighbors were being robbed, and knowing their circumstances, he couldn’t let them get away with it.

He loaded his gun, and crossed the street. He kicked in the front door, with every intention of helping the family build a new one, and entered the house. He quietly went up the stairs, which he knew was off to the right of the hall because he was invited over by the family for dinner in the past. Right then, Doc was caught red handed. Max put the gun to his head and told him that he wasn’t to move.

Max was not sure if this man was a threat to him so he came prepared when he saw that his neighbor was being robbed. He knew that as long as the man who was robbing the house wasn’t armed and dangerous, he could talk to him and prevent him from stealing. When he saw that Doc hadn’t stolen anything from the home, he put down his gun and lead Doc out of the house.

As they were leaving, the Jennings pulled up to their home with a great amount of alarm on their faces. Max informed them that Doc was robbing his house but he caught him in time before he got away with anything. The Jennings family was astounded at the fact they were looking at the criminal who attempted to rob his house. They decided to press charges against Doc under breaking and entering.

Since Doc couldn’t afford a lawyer, he didn’t know what to do. As the Jennings were calling the police to report Doc, he quickly escaped without them noticing. As the day went on, Doc was searching for a place to spend the night. He came across Ed Paulsen who was also trying to find a shelter for the night. Ed and Doc were walking down the street when they noticed a house all boarded up and decided to spend the night there. As they approached the house, loud banging was coming from inside. Ed went up to the house to see if he could sneak a peak of whomever or whatever was inside. Ed saw a man inside; he was throwing things around and piling things up. He appeared to be robbing whatever was left of the house so Doc and Ed avoided spending the night there so they wouldn’t get into any more trouble with the law.

With nowhere else to go, they kept roaming the streets until they arrived at a small diner. Both Doc and Ed were starving but had no money, so they went around to the back alley to look for any salvageable trash. They did not find anything that they would be able to eat but they did find a dollar in change miraculously. So they went inside the diner to purchase a small food item for them to share. Inside the restaurant, they started conversing with a young woman, Robin Langston. Her father owned the restaurant and they spoke of the struggles that they all face during this Great Depression. Robin told Doc and Ed of how she wanted to become a pilot but was restrained of achieving her goals because of the lack of money to achieve it. Doc and Ed admired her sense of direction and wished her the best of luck in accomplishing those goals that she set out to do.

Cara · Veteran Member

Cara & Aubrie

Larry and Jerome

(Larry has just gotten to the station with his dog Sinbad and are near late for their train.)

“Dammit”, cursed Larry. “Sinbad get over here, it’s this way”. His husky quickly trailed close behind as Larry took a quick corner. Within 10 swift strides he had arrived at his train just as it was about to leave. Shaking his arm in the air and giving a quick roar he was able to flag down one of the coachmen. The door slid open with a surprising strength exerted by an elderly man with a along twisted gray mustache. Without a word Larry jumped onto the slowly moving cart with Sinbad at his heels. The little old man cloaked in a heavy green garment asked for no ticket but chided them into the first box car and slyly latched the door shut behind the two weary travelers.

Immediately accusing eyes sprang up from every first class citizen as they shifted in their satin covered cushions. Women placed down their tea and sugar, whispering into one another ears.

“Great,” Larry scoffed in a sarcastic tone, “The Little old man was kind enough to provide us first class as well”. Perhaps they were all staring his resonant brilliance or his exquisite and divine manliness. Or perhaps it was the holes in his tattered teal button up, the look of his greasy blonde hair, and the wonderful stench of body odor just filling up the cart room like a basket of rotten eggs. That was probably it…

“Well, Sinbad whatta you think?, Should we stay?”. With a quiet response from Sinbad Larry made the decision to stay in first class but to move to one of the back rooms where there seemed to be some vacant booths and privacy. As the traveler and his pet made it to the back Larry left a nice muddy trail of his size 12 boots across the red velvet carpet. Larry was anything but ashamed of how he looked. In fact he truly found it hilarious how he had caught them all so off guard and disturbed them so. Well, within a moment’s time he had chosen a booth and signaled Sinbad to take his choice of seat. He took to the right and so Larry the opposite. The teal jacket had just rolled off of Larry’s muscular shoulders when another tall, young man emerged from the laboratory. His brown hair was neatly gelled back and his pale face in the middle of a thick, worn book. It was only as he came within five feet of Larry that he looked up with a wrinkle of his nose. His eyes widened a moment and went back to norm as he slowly started shuffling passed Larry and his dog. Sinbad gave a quick growl and started this o’ so charming intellect into walking faster. But before he made it to his booth, just to a little off to the side of Larry’s he asked,

“Will you be staying?”

Larry laughed, “Why, yes of course. You’re not allergic to dogs are you?”

~

I quickly excused my self from my celebutante companions as I had been instructed to follow Porfirio Rubiros into the men's room on a dare (http://www.observer.com/node/37662) and I had just seem him walk that way. You see, my friends and I were on our way back to New York City for the next big event at El Morocco. I had received a hand delivered invitation a few weeks back, saying that my attendance had been personally asked for by the owner of the club.
I reached the rest room and Rubi was no where to be seen. I decided to abandon this mission and head back to my seat. As I got closer to my party, I began smelling a fowl odor. "Where could this possibly be coming from?" I wondered. I looked around the cart to see what had changed and I noticed a dirty blond man now sitting to my right. I grimaced but tried to ignore him. Before sitting down, I asked him if he was staying, hoping that he was just passing through. He laughed and answered, " “Why, yes of course. You’re not allergic to dogs are you?” He smiled at me, a distinctly yellow grin is all I remember. I made another face of disgust and sat down in my seat. The man seemed to be able to tell that I was not to happy about my current situation and once again laughed at me. He apologized for, "not being just like my high class, society like friends." Hoping to silence him, I quickly hissed back that he should almost be ashamed of him self, hopping into a first class car where he doesn't belong, bothering all those around him.

"Well excuseeeeee me," he responded, now feeling indignant, "but I was under the impression that this train was for the benefit of all people, just just the rich and famous."

"Of course this train is for 'regular' people, but first class is for those who can afford it. People not like you," I responded.

The man angrily barked back, "Who can afford anything these days! With this Depression, people can barely leave their house without worrying about money. The rich had taken so much of the money for themselves, leaving barely anything for the majority of our nation!"

"What Depression? I've barely noticed any problem and have not been affected at all. I just work, taking pictures of the wealthy for an honest living and have been fine. Have you even suffered at all or are you being dramatic."

He let out a breath and looked down, "These have been very hard times.

As a boy my household witnessed many changes. There were many days where we would often only get one meal; we would hardly ever have meat, but if we did we split a small round steak, just one between my entire family and myself. The portions were very small, but i guess better than none.And you should have seen my father, who was perhaps hurt worst of all.

Checks became fewer and fewer, eventually we sold some of our furniture, but dad got worse and worse. His mood changed drastically from a decent well mannered man to a drunken brute. He would go out early most mornings and search for hours, all over for work. He along with many other men in town were known to just leave, without a sign, to go off to Seattle, or Chicago in search for work. Some weeks were better than others, those were the weeks where father had a quick job, but when the tool case came back home with him, you knew that was it, back to square one, bad tempers, even less food, and lots of tension.

It shocked me that my father could no longer provide for his family. I became very confused not only about how and why but that i thought he was a stronger man, invincible, and i was coming to see that he was not. This fact more than shocked me, it pained me. I have come to believe this was in fact why so much tension arose between us - because i resented the fact that he could do a better job. That reason right there is what i also feel led me to wanting to leave home. I think i was afraid to become something like that of my father, so i wanted to go out and explore a bit, perhaps a couple of years down the road i would check in. But not for some time.

So the depression had severely damaged my father's confidence as well as limiting his abilities. In seeing this i went abroad, or rather across the nation. I hopped box cars to Texas and Colorado, later stopping in Kansas. And that's basically where I am now, trying to get around, this train being just one of many for me this week. I'm trying to get by, its just never easy."
I looked down. "I have never been told such a compelling story. I'm so sorry," I told this man, now regretting my earlier angry statements. He seemed to accept my current docility as an apology. "Its alright my friend," he answered with a softer tone in his voice. I sat there, thinking of how different our lives were and how truly easy I had it. His story had sincerely affected me and I wanted others to feel the same way. "Would you mind if I perhaps took your picture? Nothing to formal...maybe I could write down a few of the details of your story...?"
He smiled and answered, "Sure, I've got no where else to be," and turned towards me, "Try to get my good side, would ya?"

mre · Senior Member

Grades Updated 4/6/10