Worst of Times and Best of Times

Women simply don’t like to reveal their age.  At least I don’t, but now in my “golden” years I pause to reflect on my life during the Great Depression of the 30s.  I say this because the current events of the past few years give me a desire to remember what our life was life back “then.”

Yes, it could be called the Worst of Times.  People were throwing themselves out of windows when the stock market crashed.  Money wasn’t available from a window in the bank.  The doors of banks were closed and no place to get cash for your next trip to the market. 

My father was one of the lucky ones.  He had a job.  It only paid $30.00 a week but we considered ourselves fortunate.  He could pick up cheap meat and veggies from the A and P grocery…… (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Co).  They had no freezers and were closed on weekends.  It was a good time to buy food although we didn’t have large refrigerators that held much. 

Hobos would come knocking on our back door wanting to work for a meal.  My mother never turned them away and aways prepared a meal.  We lived in a small duplex and really didn’t have much for them to do, but they expected to work for their food and Mother would find small jobs around the house.  No one expected handouts.  There was a sense of pride in working for what you received. 

 The Works Progress Administration initiated by President Roosevelt, better known as the WPA, put men to work on bridges and roads.  However, hardships continued through the ‘30s and the beginning of the ‘40s. 

I remember hearing Roosevelt telling his radio audience about the horrific attack at Pearl Harbor.   We were shocked at this assault on our country.  Now there was a war on two fronts, Europe and Asia.    But America was united. 

Patriotism was greater than at any time that I can recall. Women filled in the workforce; kids collected scrap metal and paper; we bought saving stamps from our teacher, war bonds etc.  We were limited on certain foods. We used food stamps to buy sugar and there were no bananas.  People grew their own veggies from their Victory Gardens.  Cookbooks came out, using a limited number of ingredients.  Everyone was involved in the war effort. 

But it also was the Best of Times.  My childhood and into my teenage years were good times for our generation.  We didn’t have our parent’s worries.  We had little and most likely would be considered poor today; however, many of my childhood friends were in the same boat.  We had a tightly knit family, which sadly isn’t seen too often these days.  There were pickup games on Saturdays, following strict but good learning at school.  I could go out and play with friends and never worry about being attacked.  We played jacks and kick the can and caught fireflies when it turned dark. 

Our parents never worried about what the teacher was telling us at school.  We weren’t being indoctrinated with Wokeism or Cancel Culture.   We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning with hands on our hearts.  The intercom played the Star Bangled Banner and there was pride of living in America. 

It’s difficult to give advice to the present generation.  Through no fault of their own, they have been exposed from an early age to entitlements, comfort zones, drugs, foul language, transgenderism and lack of respect for our great country and authority.

I pray that a change is coming. I pray that this generation can overcome the obstacles which we are facing in today’s world.  Is it  just wishful thinking that we can ever return to having  pride in our country?  Is making “America Great Again” just a dream?