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Great Depression survivors worried but don't see history repeating
Depression survivors worried but don't see history repeating
By Mike Clary and Doreen Hemlock
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
October 6, 2008
Bank
failures, plunging stock prices, mortgage foreclosures, rising
unemployment — no wonder the specter of the Great Depression has been
invoked repeatedly in the current financial crisis.
But is this economic meltdown anything like the Great Depression?
"No, this is nothing," said Boca Raton resident Mary Walsh, who at 96 has vivid memories of the panic and
despair that gripped the nation for a decade after the stock market
crash of October 1929.
"There were six families in the house where I lived, and only one man
was working," said Walsh, who spends many days talking and playing
cards at the Mae Volen Senior Center in Boca Raton. "There were a lot of people out in the street and there was no help from the government."
At the Northwest Focal Point Senior Center in Margate, Rose Borham, 89, came to a similar conclusion.
"We went to bed hungry in the Depression," said Borham, who grew up in
the north Bronx when the New York borough was almost rural.
"We cooked a pot of potatoes, and if we had a pat of butter to put on them, that was great.
"The similarity here is fear about losing money in the bank, our
savings. You want to live with dignity, so of course I'm concerned. But
maybe with the government now, we're a little better off."
Few, if any, analysts predict the current financial crisis will lead to
a second Great Depression. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, a
former Princeton University professor and expert on the Great
Depression, has been loathe to compare then and now, while warning of
"very negative implications" if credit markets dry up and fear spreads.
But the present economic decline has been described as the greatest
financial blow to strike America since the Depression, which triggered
a worldwide economic downturn that lasted until the start of World War
II.
In the United States, unemployment hit 25 percent, and the absence of
any social or financial safety net drove middle-income families
overnight to bread lines, soup kitchens and homelessness.
As tough as times are now for many Americans, including South
Floridians, federal insurance for bank deposits, Social Security, and
last week's approval by Congress and President Bush of a $700 billion
bailout package make a depression unlikely, experts say.
Still, the worry is there, especially for survivors of the Depression era.
Helene Mayer, 81, a resident of Century Village in Deerfield Beach,
said she has a few stocks but "I'm afraid to call [my broker] to see
how this has affected me."
As worried as she is, however, Mayer, a retired New York City teacher,
can recall a time in the 1930s when "we lived in two rooms for four
people.
"My dad lost his business. I didn't have one toy," she said.
Mayer said she did not visit a dentist until she was 12, adding, "I didn't need to — there was no candy."
Scars borne by those who lived through the Depression are often
invisible, but real. Anne Reinhagen, 90, who grew up in New York and
New Jersey, broke into tears at the Focal Point Senior Center when she
told of the humiliation she felt at having to wash and polish a
well-off neighbor's floor for 65 cents and a half-sandwich lunch.
"We learned how to survive, to save everything, even bread crumbs to put in the meatloaf to stretch our food," she said.
Retired construction boss and Navy veteran Henry Newmon, 85, a native
of West Palm Beach, remembers his father, a city worker, being paid in
worthless scrip — ersatz money — when he was thrown out of work.
"It started with the banks," said Newmon, voicing support for
government bailout measures intended to stop the credit squeeze and
prevent increases in unemployment.
"The Depression was a bad time all around. And there are too many out of work now. But this is not like the Depression."
Mike Clary can be reached at mwclary@sunsentinel.com or at 305-810-5007.
My dad lost his house and job.Ended up working for the WPA.
We were on welfare,not sure how long.
The food on the table was scarce.
There were nine of us.
My mother did a lot of baking bread etc.
But,I was not aware how this effect my parents and sibling.
Somehow we manage to get along and stayed warm.
Everything was hand me down.We did get some new clothes
from a dept.store.
I got mackinaw jacket,pants etc.Could not wear some of them
for it was too wooly for me.
We got along fine and finally things worked out.
Then we ran in the second war.Where three of my brothers got
drafted.