Raymond and Anna Marie McIntyre: Were you affected by banks closing?

ANNA MARIA: And then, a couple months later, the beginning of 1935, in the spring of the year, my young sister was only about five years old. When the Breneman bank closed, we were literally put out on the street. My mother and dad lost their little home. They came in and said-- , you know

HOST: They foreclosed on your parents' house.

ANNA MARIA: And everything was put out on-- I can remember it so vividly.

HOST: What did you do?

ANNA MARIA: Well, about a block away, there was a mover, Eisenhart Moving, up the street on Farragut. Mom went up there and asked them to please help us. And fortunately, over across the street, there was a vacancy, and we moved into that house. We were really lucky that it was there. But that really was a hard time. Food, in Krey Packing Company, they gave free baloney and hot dogs on Thursday, if you went and stood in line. And we used to go over there and also, my mother always had a little garden in the summertime. And what you say like parsley, but they called it soup greens then. She would pick a nice bunch of this, and I would take that to Kroger's, and the butcher gave me a soup bone for that. And she cooked whatever she could add to that and made a pot of soup. I recall, neighbors would send me to the store, and believe it or not, I brought home a pound of chicken feet for $0.10 that they had ordered, that's how bad off they were that they made their soup with--

HOST: Chicken feet.

ANNA MARIA: Chicken feet.

HOST: For the stock?

ANNA MARIA: For the stock, yes.

RAYMOND: And things, talking about food like that, our family too, there was a little store a few blocks away that we dealt with. There was no supermarkets or anything. But we ran a tab. So I would go up there, they would put it on a tab. And then at the end of the month, when your parents had something to take up-- a quarter, $0.50 or something-- and then you could continue on. But there was a couple of times when it wasn't there and they'd turn you down, for a loaf of bread say, or for milk, or whatever your mother sent for.

HOST: You'd say, put it on the tab, and they'd say, we can't extend any more credit to you?

RAYMOND: Right, until you bring a little something in. But I mean everybody, it was not just us. At that time they ran a tab on many families.

ANNA MARIA: And when things got really bad in the winter and your dad was out looking for work, my brother had this little wagon. It wasn't a little wagon, it was a nice size wagon. He went to the railroad yards and he wasn't the only boy there. They swept out the coal cars and he brought that coal home. And that's what we used for heating. And you'd pick up all kinds of different things there. And you were only too glad to get whatever. I babysat $0.25 a night, when I was 10 years old. And--

HOST: For the whole night? Yeah.

ANNA MARIA: Yes. And right in the neighborhood. If anybody-- if they found that people that had children that were reliable, just because the store actually gave my name. I had two customers that I babysat regularly for. And hey, every little--

HOST: So everybody had to contribute.

ANNA MARIA: And your clothes were usually made from hand me downs. But, you know though, people were close, even neighbors, I think. Sunday afternoons, everybody sat out in their yard, if they had relatives, you joined them and sat and talked. But people were friendly and did try to help one another, if there was any way that they could.

HOST: Ray, I understand there was a time when you injured your foot and you weren't sure whether your parents could afford the medical care, talk about that.

RAYMOND: Right, I cut it somewhere. And at that time, you mostly run around in the summer with nothing but bare feet. You didn't even have tennis shoes. And I cut it. And I just neglected it, let it go until finally, it just became so painful. And I took it to my-- at that time my mother and my step father. My mother happened to be married by that time or remarried. And he literally carried me on his back about oh, a good half mile or more to the doctor up on Grand Avenue. And he lanced it and you know wrapped it up, and I had to take care of it. But you just kind of let things go. If you had a toothache, you waited till you couldn't stand up no more before you even told your parents about it.