Experiences of the Great Depression

1. Experiences of the Great Depression Personal History Assignment

2. Task • Choose one of the following oral histories • Complete the worksheet by answering the questions as fully as possible • Research terms and ideas contained in the texts to add additional information to your answers • Submit the work at the end of the second lesson

3. Authorship: Who wrote the document? Where did she come from? Was he an eye-witness of the events described? Judge whether she had a particular point-of-view, or perspective, and what it was? • Audience: Who did the author write for? Who might be interested in this information? • Purpose: What is the author describing? List three places or things the author mentions from his or her childhood? • Conclusion: How might an historian living today use this source? Write a one paragraph summation of this material OR an evaluation of what it tells us about the depression.

4. Look for the silver lining.... Despite the economic disaster, my school life was happy. Like everyone else, I had my bad days; but I was much happier than many literary and other celebrities who, in their memoirs, "look back in pain and anger" on their time at school. Anthony Trollope, for example, spent many years of discomfort and humiliation at expensive schools which his father, with his chronic financial fecklessness, could not afford. My situation was quite different. To be poverty-stricken among the impoverished - as most of us were during the 1930s - gave us almost a contented feeling of "belonging." I and most of my schoolfellows did not have to consort with the rich and so invite their derision because of our worn and mended clothing and other signs of our chronically straitened circumstances. The young can be especially cruel but we were all poor so we could hardly poke fun at others who, in terms of poverty, were no 'funnier' than ourselves. Against this background, I cannot remember ever feeling especially poor, although I dreamed of being rich, especially when I went to the cinema and saw how the rich could live. Many, if not most of the films in my school-days were escapist - like 'Brewster's Millions' - or brilliantly fanciful - like such Disney creations as 'Fantasia.' . People were nicer to each other then. My sister and I used to go fairly regularly to the Saturday afternoon matinee at the Tivoli Theatre, opposite the City Hall in the centre of Brisbane. It had grand shows, especially of Westerns, and grand give-aways which were worth much more than the sixpence we had to pay for the entrance ticket. One day, my elder sister, who was keeper of the Privy Purse, lost our entrance money, so we couldn’t pay for our tickets. She approached someone at the ticket office and explained what had happened, pledging that, if we were allowed to see the show that afternoon, we would bring the money for it the following Saturday. The Tivoli manager was consulted and quickly brushed the problem aside. There was no difficulty - none at all. We would not have to pay the following week. He escorted us personally to our seats; made sure we got our free ice creams and our headdresses to celebrate the film "The Indians are Coming"; and said he hoped we would enjoy the show. We did!! James, born in Australia, resident now in Vienna

5. The Swagman – Human Face of the Depression To me, as a four-to-six year-old in the years immediately before World War Two, the depression meant ‘swaggies’ - those men (and women) who tramped the roads of country Australia looking for work.We lived on a small dairy farm on the road leading from Lismore to Byron Bay, on the far north coast of New South Wales. The house was right beside the road, and swagmen were frequent callers. Even though my parents were struggling themselves, they tried to help these desperate passers-by when they could.One afternoon a woman called at the back door, asking for food. Her husband (presumably that’s who he was - people didn’t have ‘partners’ then) and a couple of children waited by the side of the road. Our father and mother were over at the cowbails, doing the afternoon milking (by hand).My brother, five years older than me, and all of eight at the time, gave the woman some bread, and some jam out of the tin. I said to him: "What did she put the jam in?" and he replied: "She put it in her hand". And that’s what happened. He simply spooned it into her bare hand. It’s not always easy for kids to know how best to cope with unusual circumstances One swaggie was a bit more up-market (although I don’t think that word had been invented then). He toiled up the hill below our place one warm Saturday afternoon, pulling a two-wheeled handcart behind him. It was quite a substantial affair and it turned out to be the conveyance for his personal belongings and for his tools of trade - he was a sign-writer, walking the roads looking for work.My father, as he always did with strangers, engaged the man in conversation. It turned out that the man could play the musical saw - an ordinary handsaw clamped between the legs in a horizontal position while the right hand drew a violin bow across the top edge of the vibrating saw, and the left hand flexed the saw to enable the full range of notes to be sounded on it. Barrie, Jerrabomberra, New South Wales

6. Bruce was born in 1927 at Roseville. In 1928 his family moved to a rented house in Balmoral. By mid 1929 his father who was in a partnership in a printing industry supply house, closed the door of the business in Clarence Street, Sydney and simply walked away. There were no customers and no one would buy the stock or the company.His parents then rented a small shop with rooms above in the Esplanade, Balmoral. The shop provided, sweets, ice cream and other like items, hot water for tea, however this fell apart as no one could afford such luxuries.Just after Christmas 1930, Bruce’s parents made the decision to send him to Adelaide to be in the care of his maternal Grandparents, two aunts and an uncle.Bruce vaguely remembers the journey accompanied by a friend of his mother. Some time in 1931, Bruce’s mother travelled to Adelaide to live and his father obtained accommodation with a family in Ryde. He remembers his father telling of walking to the City in search of work and probably to pick up the Dole payment.Bruce commenced school in Adelaide (paid for by Grandparents) at St. Augustan Kindergarten, Unley in 1932.When the family had to move out of the rented house due to the Depression, Bruce’s parents were lucky enough to have friends who stored their furniture and personal possessions.Some time in late 1933, Bill (Bruce’s father) secured a job as a commercial traveller with S. Cooke Pty.Ltd. in Kent Street Sydney and in the early part of 1934, Mirrie, (Bruce’s mother) and Bruce returned to Sydney to a rented house at 35 Dalton Road Mosman and Bruce commenced school in that year at Mosman Primary School.Bruce remembers, after he had eaten an apple, a boy at school asking "give’usya core mate". The boy had no shoes or socks in winter time. http://www.seniors.gov.au/internet/seniors/publishing.nsf/Content/Contribution+-Bruce