Reply #237: Depression

[bonnieS]

TCM just showed a great movie (Wild Boys of the Road) made in 1933 about the Depression. Two boys leave home so as not to be a burden to their (former) middle class parents who have lost their jobs. They ride the rails and encounter a girl dressed as a boy and the three of them try to get to Chicago, but are beaten back by the police. One of the boys loses a leg to a moving train. At the end they are arrested in New York after a series of nightmarish events. One of the boys says to the Judge "You have MONEY FOR THE BANKS, BUT NONE FOR US!" The Judge responds by offering compassionate solutions for the three of them (we have seen hundreds of young people in the same situation during the movie) and says "One day things will be better, your parents will have jobs, and you can go home."

Not said: then your grandchildren will have the same problems.

My mother says that one thing they did during the Depression to save money was to have "parties" where everyone brought one dish and there was a whole meal for a lot of people, and it served as entertainment and companionship at the same time.