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Could it happen again? Depression survivors say no |
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Local Content -
Local News
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Written by Julie Ciaramella
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Friday, 05 December 2008 |
PUNXSUTAWNEY — With the current economic crisis being called the worst since the Great Depression, and the current recession was declared official Monday, many Americans may be thinking back to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed.
Several Punxsutawney residents lived through the Depression and still have strong memories of that time.
Food was scarce, and finding work could be next to impossible. Still, people found ways to survive and make do with the little that they had.
Former Mayor John Hallman, 82, said his strongest memory of the Depression is having "coffee soup" for breakfast.
"My mother would make coffee on the stove, then pour it in a bowl with some milk, and we'd put bread or crackers in it," he said. "I ate quite a bit of that."
His family also raised their own chickens and rabbits for food — "That was our basic meat product," he said — and had a garden.
"I can't remember grocery stores," Hallman said. "A lot of people had vegetable gardens and fruit trees. There was a lot of canning and baking of bread and rolls."
He said his mother would bake bread and rolls in the same potbelly stove that provided heat for the family in their house on Elk Run Avenue. Several years later, Hallman said, the family moved to Bell Avenue, where his great-grandfather, Samuel Bell, had built homes.
Hallman said his father lost a job as a glassblower when the company's building burned down, and his father went to work for the U.S. Postal Service.
"It was hard to get a job, but he took on a job down there. He delivered special delivery mail at 25 cents per piece," Hallman said, adding that 25 could go far back then.
During the holidays, Hallman and his younger sister, Evelyn, would each get one present and made ornaments for their Christmas tree.
"We had a tree in one room, and it was decorated with stuff we made for the tree because we couldn't afford to buy anything," Hallman said.
Hallman said he is not worried that the country will have to go through another Depression, even with the current stock market and economic woes.
"I don't know whether we can face another depression, but I hope they get things straightened out," Hallman said. "Both political parties have to remember they were elected by the taxpayers, and that's who they're working for. They're not working for themselves or the government or the president, and we forget that. We elect them so they can help us."
Jean Fellner, who will soon turn 72, said she lived through only a part of the Depression, but still has memories of tough times.
"I never went hungry," she said. "We gardened, and that was the greater part of our food supply. My mother and dad were always able to somehow make ends meet even back then."
Fellner's parents had to leave Punxsutawney in order to find work, she said.
"They lived away, and my grandmother lived with the kids here," she said. "They came home every three weeks from Polk, Pa., where they worked at a state institution where they were considered trained LPNs (licensed practical nurses). They took care of children of all ages who were considered to be mentally and physically deficient."
Fellner said the country will not go through another depression, because "things will be handled better this time."
Marie Jenks, 85, said she was six years old when the stock market crashed in 1929, and she remembers it "very well."
When the stock market crash happened, Jenks was with her family in Norway. Her parents, Norwegian immigrants, had decided to take the family there for a trip.
"Of course, we came back, and it was very, very difficult because the money was gone, the stocks had crashed, and my father was in the stock market because he had invested his money he made from drilling in it," Jenks said. "My mother and father decided it was so bad we better go back to Norway where we'd at least get plenty to eat."
The family's bags were packed to move to Norway when her father had a job offer in Kansas. Previously, her father had owned his own drilling company, Black Diamond Drilling Company. During the Depression, he had to live in Kansas for one winter just to keep working, even though he had tried to get jobs around town.
When her father returned from Kansas, Jenks said, "We almost lost our house. My father was banking at Punxsutawney National Bank, and he was trying to save the house, trying to show he could make enough money in a year to keep it."
The family struggled not just to keep their house, but to survive day to day with enough food.
"It wasn't easy to get food," Jenks said. "My father worked for Sanitary Dairy for a while, and that was one way of getting milk for the family. We would get blood from the beef and provision company, and we would eat blood pudding. There was really no money. You'd eat what you had. It was a good lesson in not spending more than you had because you didn't have any to spend to begin with. It made an impression on me.
"I remember wanting to buy a Hershey's chocolate bar, but you had to resist any kind of unnecessary buying and certainly candy was unnecessary," she said.
As far the economy now is concerned, Jenks said, "I think things have happened to keep the economy going. I certainly hope people don't have to go through a depression like it was in 1929."
Hallman, reflecting on his years spent growing up during the Depression said, "It was pretty hard times, but we were happy."
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 06 December 2008 )
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