I was born in July 1924 and was 5 years old in 1929. I have no "remembrances", as such, of the crash itself other than a vague recollection that something momentous had occurred, and that a number of people had jumped to their deaths from the upper floors of the few tall buildings, or otherwise committed suicide. With no TV to repeatedly report this unfolding tragedy, a 5 year old had no basis upon which to appreciate what was taking place. My Parents were silent on the subject, presumably to protect me from having to try to understand the un-understandable. Only later from the chit-chat with other kids did the heartfelt sorrow of these losses become more apparent.

Prior to the crash the "Roaring Twenties" the unemployment rate hovered around 4%. Following the crash the rate climbed to almost 25% and it wasn't until 1941,12 years later that the rate came down to our present 10%. The Great Depression earned its title due to both its severity and its duration.

As I remember my Economics 101 at OSU (Ohio State, of course) a 5% rate is considered a "normal" rate of unemployment due to employees quitting, moving, sickness, and a myriad of other causes-as in the 20's, we had become accustomed to a lesser rate due to the intense business environment of the recent past. Reducing the current 10% to a more normal 5% unemployment, leaves an abnormality with which we are suffering of 5%. That doesn't make either the 5 or 10% acceptable but it does tend to reduce the comparative significance of the increase in our perception of our situation.

In a similar manner the 25% following the crash probably should also be reduced to 20% (this is still four times our present situation). But even this doesn't tell the story as the percentages exclude those urban families that were assimilated back into the family farms in that heavily agrarian population. My guess is that those that were jobless but had a family farm to go back to, and did so, would possibly double the 20%.

But to bring all of this back home, in my family it was 100%. And how they survived is a source of great pride.

My paternal Grandfather was a Design Engineer of bridges. His father had a large farm and three sons. It was the custom of those times that upon the death of the father, the farm was divided among the sons. My grandfather (one of the three) wanted to get off the farm and go to college (Ohio State, of course). He negotiated among his brothers and their Dad that he would forgo his one-third interest in the farm for their financing his college dream. And he, and they, did.

When the Depression hit he was working for the Mt. Vernon (Ohio) Bridge Co. All construction came to a screeching halt after the crash as there was no money available for payroll or anything. So the plant was shut down and stayed closed for many years.

Grandpa and Grandma were a first generation off the farm and lived in a small town. They always had a large vegetable garden, did extensive canning for winter consumption, and had a continual flow of protein from their mini barn which housed their rabbits and chickens. But they still needed some source of cash.

In watching the newspaper classified ads in his home and adjacent counties, (they mostly became weeklies), he spotted an ad for a school bus driver-but there was a catch-the driver had to supply the bus-meaning a real bus --which would carry not less than 24 students.

So, Grandpa and my Dad built a "real" school bus on the frame of an old Dodge truck. Grandma and my mother did the upholstering, and my assignment was to stay out of the way which I did with great success.

My Dad was borne in 1901, so he was 28 at the time of the crash. He had graduated as an Architect (from Ohio State, of course) and was working as a draftsman for a firm of Architects at the time of the crash. He had worked his way through college with a dance band which was disbanded following graduation. It was reconstituted following the crash as the field of architecture was dead in the water. All construction in process was wound up rapidly and nothing new was even being considered.

Needless to say, the architectural firm terminated his employment very shortly after the crash, but before exiting the termination meeting he inquired if they would be needing a janitor for the building, The answer was yes, and so he became the part time janitor-at least it would provide a little cash. That was not a time for pride.

Thursday evening was rehearsal time for his band to prepare for their Friday and Saturday night gigs. Homo-sapiens functionality apparently is not diminished by mere economic matters. At that time we lived in a duplex which had a large front porch, and, weather permitting, that's where the band practiced. Neighbors from blocks around us came to listen to the practice. But the earnings were not enough for a family of five.

At that time the YMCA had undertaken to offer training courses in a broad range of subjects, including drafting. So, my Dad became a teacher of draftsmanship. But neither the "Y" nor the students had any money so he was paid with Y script which was good for other services of the "Y". That is where I learned to swim, where the Model A had its repairs, and where we would go for an ice cream cone on a hot summer evening. But this did not solve the problem of cash in hand.

My Dad said that there were three things that would always sell --these were booze, prostitution and candy. I have no idea as to how he swung the deal, but we had 300"Chickie" candy machines all over central Ohio selling candy at five cents a pop. We had the normal problem of nickel input slots being jammed from slugs trying to impersonate a nickel requiring on site repairs or replacement with the removed unit being repaired at home for reuse asap.

In 1936 with the unemployment rate having slowly declined from the 25% high to about 15% my Dad was rehired as a draftsman by his old firm (and gave up his janitorial job). He kept the candy machine business for weekends but after a few years it disappeared.

Thusly we survived the Great Depression into the latter 1930s when the nation started the build up for WWII (which is a hard but effective way to recover from a depression).

A few other remembrances-My Dad each evening rolling his stash of cigarettes for the next day, and making "home brew" for whenever. Mom was a highly accomplished pianist and played with the band- I remember her "darning" sox for all of us, and her making my two sisters (about 4 and 6 years old) matching dresses and entering them in a talent contest held by a local department store singing "I Like Mountain Music"--and winning two brown paper bags of groceries -a bonanza. And I recall her distress at being turned down by the Children's Hospital for the admission of the older of my two younger sisters for a mastoid surgery because we had 2 cars (the second car was a 1929 Studebaker that got 8 miles to the gallon which my Dad had just inherited following Grandpas' death). Mom somehow was able to get the turn down matter reversed. And I remember the toll that all of this took of her. And I am still coping with the after effects of not going to a dentist.

But that was a different time, a different people, and a different government.

As for remembrances regarding myself, on balance I think I had a happy early life. I helped my Dad in servicing the candy machines and became proficient in repairing a jammed coin box. But by the age of 12 it started to become more important that I have some pocket money and some clothes. It was also clear that if I wanted something to be done about it, it was up to me. So I got myself a newspaper route delivering the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch to 100 customers. At that time the daily paper sold for one cent of which the carrier got half-after collecting the monies. The Sunday paper sold for ten cents and the carrier got two cents. With my route of 100 customers and making five cents a week on each, was five dollars a week-WOW! Each and every week! Clearly I had hit a gold mine.

During the next six years as a carrier I learned a number of things, including-

" A continuing flow of income requires a continuing flow of performance not withstanding the elements or your personal health and/or desires.

" A continuing flow of income does not preclude a fortuitous grass cutting or car polishing bonanza which you would probably have had anyway.

" That a purchase of anything is an exchange of the value of your time and effort, for the item being purchased. Example-after enduring seven days of pedal pushing the delivery of newspapers, often in inclement weather, you earned $5 of purchasing power--you are well aware of what it took to earn that power.

So if you are considering buying a shirt priced at $10, your cost of the shirt is not $10---it is two weeks of paperboy effort. If that exchange makes sense, go for it. If not, don't.

" I learned The Natural Law of Four-which is---

The quantity of anything at a beginning point in time,
                                    PLUS
The quantity of that same thing added to it up to a later point in time,
                                    LESS
The quantity of that item sold or disposed of up to that later date,
                                    EQUALS
The quantity of that item remaining at that later date.

This gave me control over my collections and my daily paper count.. I later learned that if you have any three of the four numbers, the fourth number is determinable, and that this ability to determine what a number should be, is a key factor in financial management and control.

" And Lastly---I developed a philosophy of"Illegitimi non carborundum". For those that avoided the torture of trying to learn Latin, this translates to something like "don't let the bastards wear you down".

Charlie