Margaret Barrett: Did you notice people helping each other more during the Depression?
Did you notice people helping each other more during the Depression? Margaret talks about this during her interview.
Margaret (born in 1917) talks about bank closings, struggles in farming communities, her jobs and salary, going to school during the Depression, and the wonder of modern conveniences like electricity, indoor plumbing and the radio.
MARGARET: Oh, yes. When we were on a farm, there was a family that were our neighbors, and the father was out of a job. And they had six children, I guess. And the boys were a little older than my brothers. And my dad always hired them as one after another as they grew up as hired people, hired men. And my dad used to the father come and hunt in our woods, and he would, you know, shoot squirrels and rabbits for his family to live off. And my dad let him do that. And then too during the Depression, there were a lot of-- I guess you would call them vagrants or hobos who would walk along Highway 40, which was above our, a quarter of a mile from our house. And they would come down to our house and ask for food. And mom would always give them food. She would make sandwiches or whatever we were having. She would make that, she would give them a dinner, but she always asked them to chop some wood. So they would chop wood out while she fixed their dinner and their lunch. And then they would sit out in the back porch and eat their lunch, and then they would go on. But that happened quite often during the Depression.
- Introduction
- Where did you live during that time?
- Did you notice people helping each other more during the Depression?
- What things did your family do to get through the Great Depression?
- What was school like during the Depression?
- Did you have modern conveniences in your home like electricity?
- Did you have a radio during the Depression?
- Full Interview
Raymond and Anna Marie McIntyre:
Raymond (born in 1923) and Anna Marie (born in 1927) discuss how neighbors and family helped each other during the Depression, entertainment during hard times, their jobs and salaries and transportation options.
- What was popular for entertainment during the Depression?
- How did you get around during the Depression?
- What types of jobs did you have then?
- Discussing a Christmas party held during the Great Depression...
- Were you affected by banks closing?
- How were you helped by the Works Progress Administration?
- What lessons did you take away from the Great Depression?
- Full Interview
Byron Gross and Sam Weber:
Byron (born in 1914) and Sam (born in 1913) talk about President Roosevelt’s fireside chats, how the crisis affected them and their fellow St. Louisans, and lessons they learned from the Great Depression.
- Introductions
- What were you doing during the Great Depression?
- What were some difficult adjustments you had to make during the Depression?
- Discuss the conditions endured by some during the Depression.
- Were you affected by bank closings during the Great Depression?
- What was it like to listen to Roosevelt's fireside chats?
- A story about helping each other to get by...
- What was something people wished for?
- Lessons Byron took away from living through the Great Depression...
- Lessons Sam took away from living through the Depression...
- Full Interview
The Great Depression Curriculum Interview series, recorded in 2008, is made up of conversations with St. Louis-area residents who lived through the Great Depression. The interviews provide students with first-person accounts of life between 1929 and 1940.
Teachers can get students talking about the videos with discussion questions (pdf) based on the interviews.
For additional Great Depression-related multimedia resources, from newsreels to oral histories, visit our audio and video collections.