depression and in a White City, where blacks didn't live. The answer that I will get will infect my opinion about that decade.
Now its a time for some questions. I have no problem if everyone will answer my question, because im not directing it to noone specific.
1. Do you remeber the day of the crash, when the stock market crashed? what did you do? how did you react?
1. (John) "I remember that day. The banks just closed their doors, I had $12 in the our bank account. And we had this account for many years. That bank did not close its doors the day of the crash, but when we came there they only paid me back 50% of the value of my account over many years."
2. How did the depression effected you financially?
2. (Edith) "You see, for us it wasn't such a big deal in the financial area. We didn't have much money anyway prior to the depression, so we didn't suffer that much. However, for my sister and her family it was a very big crisis. Pearl (Edith's sister) got married to Cyrus Hill who had several farms and was considered wealthy men. Her wealthy husband and his family lost all of their farms, as the mortgage loan on the farms were called due by the banks. Of course, they did not have that much cash and the banks confiscated the farms. The family managed to hold onto one farm. Now after few years later Pearl and Cyrus rented a farm and trying to struggled, but who knows what will happen next."
3. Beverly, I know that you were about 10 years old when all that happened, do you maybe remeber how was it for you? in school? with friends?
3. (Beverly) "I know that people at the age of 20 should remember how was it ten years ago, but i remember not that much. I think it was the stress that all the family and the people around us were handeling with. Anyway I do remeber that when I was about 11 years old, I felt compared to other people, that they must have been well off. I remember mother buying me a new red sweater when others at school had no money for anything. I loved wearing the red sweater to school, because my teacher would always compliment me on how beautiful she thought the sweater was. My friends, almost all of them left to different places, many even left to Hoovervilles, because their parents could effort buying even water."
4. When you recieved the news about your factory getting close, how did you react?
4. (John) "It was very hard for me. At the begining when my boss came to me and told me that they probably closing our factory i couldn't believe his words. We were working on our morning newspapers so hard everyday, but I guess people stoppd caring about the news, or maybe another paper gave them more information than ours. I didn't know how to react and tell the news to Edith. My salary wasn't high before and at this point i thought that my kids will starve, I had no options in my mind of finding better job."
5. Have you ever experience the hardest times? living with no food for a while?
5. (Edith) "Yes we have lived the hardest times as well. It was one year, I can't remember which one, now days it all lookslike a very bad dream. Anyway, one year John didn't work at all, I was taking care of Mildred. Neither my family nor John's family could help us with some money, the charities tried to help us but it was too many families to take care of. We would live with no bread for few days, and if we managed to get some pieces of bread it went stright to the mouth of Beverly and Mildred. All we cared was to make sure that they wont get sick or starve."
6. I know it might sounds wired, but was anything that you tired to do to entartaine yourselfes?
6. (Beverly) " As far as I remeber, I tried to entartaine my self sometimes, or just went out to look for some friends who tried to forget those times for couple of minutes. When it was only me without my friends, I tired to write and read, I would just take a piece of branch and start writing words on the sand, and reading them. I was proud of my self that I can actually do those things without the teachers around me. With my friends we would just run to different place to look maybe we will meet some rich family that could help and feed us, but of course those were only game there were no one who could help us with that.
7. Edith had you ever worked during the depression?
7."What a question, of course I did. It took me a while to realize that if I wont help my husband my kids might die. So I went to look for a job and found one as a nurse. The most I ever got in one week was $14. I'll never forget what the man said that hired me after my $14-a-week patient got to where she didn't need me no mo'. He didn't offer me but $10 a week, and I didn't want to take $4 lose than I had been gittin' and I told him so. 'Mamie,' he said, 'I don't make much myself, but whatever I promise to pay you you'll get it and you won't have to wait for it.' So I took it just to bring the help for my family."
8. John, Beverly just told me that you owned a car during the depression, when and why did you get sell your car?
8. (John) "I was waiting for this question from you. But I think that this question has an obvious answer. You see, when a person has no money, even though this car was expensive for me when I bought it, it was a time that I couldn't keep it anymore and see how my daugthers starving. I took it to some person who offered me the minimum for that car. It was around $500 that he paid me, while I got it for $2000. It was probably 1934 when I selled my car. But It was for good, becasue that's how I saved my family.
9. After the Depression ended, what was the attitude towards spending?
9. (Mildred) "Even though I'm still a teenager and I don't remember the Depression days at all I just can't come over to my parents and my sister to ask them to buy me something unless it's really really important. I know how they felt and how the reacted when they lost so many things that they got through their lifes, so It's very hard for me to come over them and ask them for money because I saw a nice pair of pant in the market.
10. I know you went over very hard times, but what do you think will we get to such times once again? and if we will how will you react this time?
10. (John) "I hope that we will never get back to those times again. I was very hard for me to see friends of mine dying because they had no food. Also after FDR got chosen we see that we actually going foward and making some good progress, and I hope for the future that there wont be such times. And if by any chance something like that will happened again, we will try to work and finance and support our family as we did 10-15 years ago. We will stick together as a family and help each other to pass the situation.
Great Depression was a worldwide business slump of the 1930's. It ranked as the worst and longest period of high
unemployment and low business activity in modern times. The Great Depression began in October 1929, when
stock values in the United States dropped rapidly. Thousands of stockholders lost large sums of money. Many of
these stockholders were even wiped out. Banks, factories, and stores closed and left millions of Americans jobless
and penniless. Many people had to depend on the government or charity to provide them with food. After
interviewing the Kent family, I have learned that it was very hard for poeple to survive. People couldn't effort to
spend money, some people couldn't even buy bread or milk for their kids. Kent's family was lucky from some point
of view, John had his car and he sold it to finance his family. Edith also help him, she started working as a nurse
and brough some money home to support her daugthers. It was very sad for me to hear that Beverly couldn't play
with her friends and was imberesed of the red sweater that her mother bought for her. I'm the same age as Beverly
but my family always food on the table. Also this family was lucky because they lived among whites, they lived in
Chicago in white city, no blacks. I don't know what would happened if this city would be involved with black people
because then they would probably destroy it. I'm very happy that I had a chance to interview this family who suffert
from the depression but also survived it.