The Great Depression

At about that time the great depression began to be felt. It started with the collapse of the stock market in nineteen twenty-nine, but it was not immediately felt by everyone as the mills, factories, offices etc. kept laying off their workers. Men and women worked at anything and everything to earn anything at all. Many had to move out of their homes because they could not pay the rent or mortgage installment. Some built hobo shacks on vacant lots and lived there while looking for some source of income. Some started small businesses and tried to sell things that they could produce. I recall one man who baked bread, rolls, cakes, cookies, etc. and carried them around in large baskets trying to sell them. Others sold apples on street corners for ten cents each for that was important money at that time. Of course the apples were not worth ten cents but it gave them a feeling they were not begging and many people with jobs were glad to help.
Ed graduated from R.C.H.S. in 1929 and could find no permanent job. Joe had been laid off at his job and was living at home. Jim, also unemployed, was living with his family in Dernly Park, and he and one of his neighbors would often play golf in the cow pasture. Joe and I would sometimes join them. We played with a homemade club made from a small sapling with part of the root still attached, but it cost us nothing and we enjoyed the game.