V1932-01G4

Forth Grade, fall 1932 to fall 1933

Forth Grade: Miss Edith Herzog was the teacher, 33 students started and 31 finished her class, final grade distributions were 2-10-18-1-0; for I-II-II-IV-V. Principle Ira Liadig’s school phone number was 94.

Roosevelt Responds with The New Deal: We kids were aware of the impact on peoples lives about us, but living in a farming area where food was plentiful, farmers didn't worry about where the next meal came from. Few people had any money, and we all accepted doing without. Roosevelt was fully aware something drastic had to be done. One of the first thing he did was close the banks – I was cleaning spittoons at the bank at that time. Not long after he bought up gold to put money in peoples pocket, he initiated the NRA (National Recovery Act), started WPA (Works Program Administration), PWA (Public Works Administration) & CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp). Adults conversation at the bank picnic were of what Roosevelt was doing and how they fit in. They were being caused to make very hard decisions about foreclosing yet keeping someone in business so they could reclaim their farm, business. In 1933-34 the Dust Storms came, many abandon farms at this time, it was difficult to sustain a feeling of optimism. The only good thing about it was that they were better off than those in the city, and Roosevelt was saving the nation from the solutions being imposed on persons in Germany, Italy & Russia. Each year we became more aware of the world scene.

Looking north on Main Street, Farmers National Bank is on the right side, north of Hays Hardware sporting the Cooks Products & M & O Cigar sign painted on the side wall brick.

Bankers Son: My father was President of the Reserve Bldg & Loan Association and the Building Loan & Abstract Co, two firms located in offices at basement level below the Farmers National Bank. Entrance was via side walk stairway or internal stairway from the main floor. Dad subsequently became an officer of the bank, President and Chairman of the Board before his retirement.

During my formative years I was made aware of a uniqueness, particularly during the depression years, of being a Bankers son. Persons would comment, "but you don't have to worry, your fathers a banker." At first this puzzled me because I never sensed a feeling of family affluence, but after some reflection I became acutely aware that wealth is relative. We were well off compared to those with nothing, but poor compared to those with something. Our needs were satisfied but kept Spartan of necessity.

I was influenced by this circumstance of birth and the response of others more than I realized at the time. I took pride in earning my own way. It was understood that any money I spent was money I earned. Since bankers, "don't have to get their hands dirty", I felt compelled to show that I was not afraid of work or of getting my hands dirty in the process. My aunts and uncles helped instill this work ethic though neither of us were aware of it, it had been their heritage.

I derived a sense of pride in being known as a good worker and had a natural desire to try to excel, except for when it came to jobs around the house. I would eagerly take on odd jobs for others but had to force myself to do the tasks my parents requested.

Cleaning Spittoons, my First Real Job: When I in the fourth grade Dad asked if I'd be interested in a real job. He conditioned my enthusiasm by saying that I'd be working for the Bank and not him. I was informed the job consisted of cleaning five spittoons twice a week for 5 cents each!

I took on the job with a genuine thrill and applied myself with diligence, applying a sense of responsibility far in excess of that due cleaning spittoons. Three of the spittoons were in the bank and two in the basement offices. After a trial period the job was expanded to include cleaning the bathroom once a week making my total weekly pay 75 cents. That was very good money for a kid in those depression years.

In 1937 the job expanded to include being janitor of the bank increasing my pay to $11.75 a month. I continued the job until I graduated from high school. From the beginning I had my own key to the front door of the bank.

The Old Bank: The old bank ( a new one was built after WWII) had a tall imposing front. Oberlin was incorporated in 1886 and the old bank built about that time when wood false front prairie town buildings were being upgraded to imposing multistory red brick structures that provided a sense of permanence and progress. Figure 1 shows main street when it was still dirt and accommodated horse drawn traffic. Paving the streets was delayed for economic and pragmatic reasons till after the advent of the automobile. Those primitive automobile leaks & drippings were a trifle compared to horse leaks & droppings. Main street had been cleaned and graded prior to the photo. The horse was a tremendous improvement over the Ox cart as horse turds are more readily traversed than cow pies. There was a reason why ladies wore high top shoes. After WW I main street had been paved with hard red brick and cement curb and wood sidewalks converted to concrete. There were still many horse drawn vehicles, however these were left on nearby dirt parking lots so they would not dirty the paved streets. See Figure 7 & 8 at end for early Oberlin.

Down Stairs Offices: There was an ornate wrought iron railing about the stairway leading to the down stairs offices. Dads feet announced his arrival with a rumbling sound as he'd cascade down the stair way at full speed. He was always in a hurry coming and going while Hazel his secretary handled the office work with remarkable speed and efficiency.

The banks had closed 2 yrs prior and plans were being made for PWA (Public Works Administration) to build new High School. WPA (Works Project Administration) was already in effect re-leveling the grade school play ground and a CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp would soon follow they would build facilities at Lake. PWA put professional builders to work, WPA any laborer to work, CCC young men in military like camps. PWA would build the Boeing B-29 plant in Wichita KS, CCC was run by Gen George Marshall and PWA would build an extension on the rebuilt Banta Elevator.

A Buffalo above the Toledo Scales: To enter the Bank you ascended a short flight of stairs to a landing where you could enter the bank or go on upstairs to law offices. On entering the bank the first thing in view was a Toledo Scale with a large round dial with needle. No one entered without weighing themselves. Behind the scales and teller's windows was a large Bull Buffalo head mounted on the wall. It's large glass eyes stared back at you. To the side of the buffalo head were pictures of the banks founders. They had dignified poses, well groomed mustaches and apparel that would do Buffalo Bill Cody justice. In fact they might have known William Cody, it was in that part of the country Cody hunted buffalo, and a Cody family lived on a farm west of town.

Inside the Bank: The banks three inch wide oak floors were polished from use, 8 inch high oak baseboards protected wallpaper from muddy boots. The ceilings of all three floors were high. The banks front windows faced west and extended from knee high to the ceiling. The building was originally heated with coal stoves and illuminated with kerosene lamps. About the time I was born it was converted to a convection air furnace in the basement and equipped with electric lights that hung at the end of a long cord from the those high ceilings. Phones stood upright on a desk, the mouth piece at the top of a stem, the ear piece hung on a yolk on the side. Old movies show these in use, they were often lifted by their column stem when in use.

Near the front door was a cantilevered table extending from the wall, it was equipped with blank checks, ink wells and pens attached to holders by long gold looking chains. They were beautiful pen and holders. I used to dream of the day I could have a desk equipped with such fine writing equipment. Most public pens, such as those in the Post Office, were scratchy but these were high quality as fitting for a bank.

There was an inside maple floored stairway from the bank lobby to the down stairs offices. The steps were polished from years of frequent use. I evolved a way, discovered by accident, of using my shoes like skis and could actually ski/slide down stairs. One foot led and one followed while I held out my hands to catch the rail if I lost my balance. My feet would make a thundering rumble sound that would startle strangers into thinking someone had fallen down the full flight.

My Predecessor, Max Brooks: I took over the job of bank janitor from Max Brooks who's father Elwood was then president of the bank. Elwood had grown up in the vicinity of Oberlin and married Laura Patton a local girl. Elwood left in the mid 30's, became Kansas State Bank Commissioner and later President of Central Bank & Trust in Denver. After WW II Max became president of that bank.

In 1950 when my wife and I were passing through Denver on a vacation I decided to cash a check before going on & stopped at the first convenient bank. I wrote out a personal check at a counter and presented it at a tellers window as if it were the home town bank. The teller said I'd need to have the check OK'd by an official of the bank before he could cash it. I asked where I could find one, he motioned toward the back.

There were several echelons with progressively fancier appointments leading toward the Presidents closed door office at the back. In my quick glance I was startled to see Max Brooks standing near the back talking with someone, I hadn't seen him for years! I turned to the teller and asked if the man to the left at the back could OK the check. The teller nodded and started to say something as I abruptly turned away headed toward Max.

Without realizing it I had penetrated three secretarial lines of defense in my beeline to see Max, they were trailing with words that I couldn't go back there, which I was ignoring, when Max looked up. He burst into a grin from ear to ear, a reflection of my own countenance, and abruptly stopped his conversation with the person next to him. We met with arms reaching to shake hands in a flurry of questions and answers. Our behavior had disrupted others who were now staring so we stepped into the Presidents office, which may have been his for all I know and finished our visit. We joked and laughed about old times, inquired of mutual friends and our current activities; he OK'd my check and I returned to the teller.

The secretaries and teller were quite courteous, surprised and puzzled by such non typical behavior. I've never seen Max since then though I've often wished we could have visited over the years.

Max was finishing high school when I took over his job as janitor. He showed me how he spread the sweeping compound and stomped the broom against the floor periodically to clear the compound from the bristles, the next day I was on my own. Max had learned the banking business from the Floor up.

The sweeping compound, somewhat like sandy sawdust was damp with oil. It was sprinkled over the floor first then swept down. It settled the dust and oiled the floor. Country roads were plain dirt with traces of gravel. The farmer clientele tracked a lot of dust into town even after the peak dust storm years of 1932-33.

Spittoons: The spittoons were brass with a funneled top, a pot belly and lead filled base. They were kept partially filled with water and were certainly used. In those days many people chewed tobacco and smoked cigars. Ready made cigarettes were a luxury, most cigarettes were roll your own. . Most of the old timers always with a "chaw" of tobacco in their mouth. It was a real display of refined artistry to watch one them come into the bank with his cud full of spit, locate the spittoon, take aim and "patooie" hit the funnel from across the room as if there was nothing to it. They'd been spitting in house at a coal bucket by the stove for years and had to master accuracy at a young age. Housewives often tolerated chewing in preference to smoking in a closed house in the winter. Anybody could spit outside but it took an artist to hit the mark inside. Old time movies or cartoons used to depict this markmanship but as cars replaced horses and the coal bucket went to the museum this was no longer a topic of interest. By the time they built the new bank after WWII spittoons had faded into history.

Moving UP: After becoming bank janitor my duties expanded to emptying waste baskets, sweeping the floors and general clean up. I cleaned the bank every day. I'd get up about 6:00 a.m. each morning, rarely ate breakfast and rode my bike to the bank. After cleaning the bank I delivered the Topeka Daily Capital newspapers before being at school by 8:00 a.m.

I could readily relate the the Horatio Algiers series of books, some of which came from my Grandmother Landau's library as having belonged to my uncle Byron. These were happy success stories of a young man starting out with small jobs and working his way up. These were tremendous stories for kids like me at the time providing the inspiration to get ahead by diligence and hard work. These had been written before the Great Depression and before WWI at a time when opportunities were unlimited for those who worked hard and applied their earnings prudently. Such a dream is needed by all peoples of the world.

I realized that correspondence could easily be read from the carbon paper and realizing the propriety of its content took care to be sure that it was all burned and none left to blow about & read by eyes for which it was not intended. The typewriters of that time are only found in museums. The impact of the keys depended on the manual force applied, thus three onion skin thin carbon copies were about the limit. This was before copy machines. Mimeograph machines were available where it was necessary to cut a stencil, a special sheet with emulsion, and make copies with a special machine. This was used by schools but was too tedious for normal conduct of business. The Old Movies to submit that in triplicate was all that could be produced in one pass through a type writer.

Looking Out from Inside: The front windows were equipped with Venetian Blinds on the inside and a large canvas awning on the outside which could be lowered in the afternoon to keep out the hot sun. The elevated level of the main floor and the big full windows provided an excellent view of the town. Air conditioning was unknown and large overhead fans were the main means of keeping a breeze going.

My view was always in early morning from an empty bank upon an awakening small town. The post office was across the street. In the winter I'd wait in the warmth of the bank until I could see that the papers I was to deliver had arrived.

Most of the year it was still dark when I unlocked the bank. The first signs of life were sparrows, then dogs followed by cars and people. The most interesting were the dogs. I soon observed that by instinct they adhered to their own social system with customs and protocol which many humans in their ego centric world were unaware.

Two dogs would approach from a distance and take notice of the others direction and apparent intent. They would continue to approach as if completely unaware of the other, but all the time traversing in a manner that would cause their paths to intersect. In this process they would moisten a lamp post and smell a fire hydrant en-route. As they neared, each would assume a unique formal posture in an alert semi rigid manner. With legs stiff, head, ears and tail up, each took his turn to check the others identity. The one being checked would assume this ready for test pose; perfectly still, looking forward with tail up, while the other would poke his nose against the bare spot below the tail. Even on the coldest of mornings, well below zero the dog being checked would not flinch or pucker when the other dogs cold nose and frosty breath were applied. It struck me as a superb display of self discipline and reflex control to pass this test of composure and acceptability in dog society. As soon as dog A checked dog B then dog A would reciprocate and assume the rigid tail up ready for test pose and distant stare while his identity was established. This ritual was immediately followed by each wetting the nearest vertical object from a three leg stance. Then each would double check the others identifying aroma refreshing it's memeory bank for a future encounter. For the remainder of their activity in that setting there was no further introduction ritual between these two. As each new dog arrived he was subjected to the same introductory procedure before being accepted to frolic and play with the others. There are many things to learn when working in a bank.

Banking Economics: Charlie Frickey, bank president after Elwood Brook, had a large farm home, well kept farm buildings plus a large feed lot. When a small boy I had accompanying my father when he drove to see Charlie. I was fascinated by his feed lot operation and climbed up on the fence so as to see better. He had steers, hogs and chickens and fed them alfalfa and whole corn. The cattle took feed, water and corn in one end, digested it, and squeezed the left over putty like ooze from the other. It would plop-plop into globs about 3 inches thick and 15 inches in diameter.

Left undisturbed on the prairie such globs would dry like paper mache. The pioneers called them "cow chips" and used them for fuel as fuel was scarce. They burned smokeless similar to charcoal.

In Charlie's feed lot these cow pies never had a chance to dry. Following behind the cattle were hogs with noses buried in the steaming fresh goo finding and eating with relish the whole grains of corn that had passed undigested. If approached they'd stop rooting and chewing but kept nose buried, almost breathing the goo, while deciding to ignore you and eat or snort and run. From this I assumed hogs had no sense of smell. The story book image of the three little pigs with pink noses was altered to brown noses.

The hogs in turn were followed by chickens who would pick at the hog droppings for what they passed. The hog droppings had a sour smell and all though it was upsetting enough to eat ham while visualizing its origin it was even worse eating chicken. Sparrows followed the chickens and flys followed all of them. It wasn't banking but a good farmer banker needed to know these processes of thrift. At that time grain was hauled by horse and wagon and stored whole grain in a wooden bin, ground corn was expensive. Today it's hauled by truck over good roads, ground at low cost with hammer mill grinders and stored in steel bins as compounded feed. It's all digested and no need for the hogs.

Charlie had the misfortune of having several car loads of feed lot cattle enroute to market in KC at the time of the crash, prices plummeted, but the cattle had to be sold.

Farmers & Charlie could readily relate when seeking farm loans. Unfortunately Charlie’s health gave out about 1939 and he was succeeded by Holmer Merlin who died unexpectedly of a heart attack a year later. It was then that my father became president. Later Carl, Charlie's son became President of the bank. Carl bought out Dads interest in the RB&L and BL&A. His son Charles ran one and a partner Boyd Bainter ran the other.

I was often reminded of my spittoon cleaning job when years later I'd watch my son start work in the yard and become distracted by day dreams or other events & interests. I cleaned the spittoons in a back room by the basement furnace. After the novelty wore off, polishing brass became routine and my young over active mind would race off into fantasies. Peoples arrival would snap me back to reality and the realization that I'd stopped working and was just day dreaming.

Hazel and the Baby Mouse: One morning I saw and caught a baby mouse. I happened to have my savings account book in my pocket so I thought it would be fun to surprise Hazel by handing her the account book with the mouse hanging by its tail but hidden behind it. She pleasantly acknowledged my request to check the book. When she reached, I let go!

The mouse dropped on the table top in front of her, she screamed, jumped on top of her chair and uncontrollably trembled and yelled as the mouse disappeared! I was astounded, puzzled, and concerned for her well being. I was startled by the realization it was no joke to her. She recovered almost as fast and vented her highly charged emotions on me. Normally I would have reacted to such a verbal scathing but its effect on her had almost frightened me, I had already resolved to not pull that on someone again.

Winter meeting with Lonnie: My first meeting with Lonnie was while I was cleaning the snow from the sidewalk in front of the bank. He came scurrying over mad as a wet hen angrily informing me that was his job. I stopped though I was almost done and told Lonnie I was sorry, no one had told me it was his job. Everyone in town knew Lonnie, only sometimes Lonnie didn't know them. Lonnie was an alcoholic with periods of sobriety brought about by lack of funds.

Lonnie had grown up on a farm in the county, earning a living painting houses, became quite good and moved to Kansas City. He returned an alcoholic, still unmarried. At the time of our meeting he lived in a back room of one of the pool halls in return for cleaning the place. He was a likable tragic figure. Many tried to help him to no avail. An undefined compromise seemed to evolve where people would buy him drinks when he had the shakes and cut him off when he'd had too much. Before our meeting I was aware of his enterprising nature. We kids often saw Lonnie making the rounds looking for discarded bottles and carefully salvaging the last drops. I wondered if many bottles had been dicarded while retaining a last swig for Lonnie.

Lonnie had a barometer of sorts. When he walked he lifted one leg higher than the other. When loaded he lifted that leg high and when dry it almost shuffled. His health was remarkable considering the abuse he imposed on himself.

The owner of the pool hall died about the time I started to high school and Lonnie lost his rent free home. Thereafter in the winter he'd go to the power plant at night and sleep on the warm floor beside the big diesel engines, a privilege reserved for Lonnie but not for bums.

His health slowly gave out and he was sent away to a hospital. After WWII he returned, his health was broken and he didn't live too long but he was dried out well dressed and content in his final years. He'd sit on the steps of the telephone building and watch activities up and down the main street. I paused and observed Lonnie for a while in those later years wondering of all the scenes his memory was replaying.

At supper Dad said Lonnie was quite upset at my taking his job. I told Dad I'd simply assumed cleaning off the snow was part of the job as janitor. Dad said he understood, but they had always left some snow for Lonnie. And so it was with other business men up and down main street with payment often in clothes or food so he couldn't drink it.

Social Security Number for my Spitoon Cleaning Income: The social security system was established not long after I started work and Hazel Vatopka saw to it that I obtained a social security number within that first year, however my contributions probably wouldn't pay for the paper to record them. The Depression was causing people concern as never before about their future. Most persons did not believe in accepting or providing welfare, the new Social Security plan was looked upon as a form of Government encourage Savings plan, they never dreamed Congress would someday use these funds as general tax revenue.

It was a period of difficult times and my youth spared me the full realization of peoples circumstances. The community was small and people tended to look after each other. Most people maintained their sense of humor and made do with what they had. For us kids austerity was a way of life. School teachers gave us lectures on how to clean our teeth using table salt if we couldn't afford tooth paste and certain of the kids were provided free milk at school, as it was known they were not receiving enough food at home.

Farmers National Bank Picnic 1938

#	Row 1	Row 2	Row 3	Row 4
1	Jim Nelson		?
2	Nelson	Mrs Heitman	?	Ralph Brown
3	Darrell Landau	Lucil Haun	?	Rell Landau
4	Phyllis Landau		Mrs Brooks
5	Billie Lea Bowman		?
6	Marjorie Landau	Charlie Frickey	Ila Landau	Elwood Brooks
		Mrs Frickey	Effie Brown	Frank Nelson
		???	?	Joe Martin
		Agnes Heitman	?	Carl Frickey
		?	?	Hazel Vatopka
		Mrs Bivens	Alice Merlin	Frikey
		John F Peters	Zimmerman	Holmer Merlin
		Ben Bowman	?
			John Peters

We provided our own writing paper for school. The tablets stocked by the local stores were 5 cents each and of rather poor quality paper, news print is excellent by comparison. Though it was cheap we were caused to write on both sides and not waste any. One boy brought in some good quality paper, all of us took note, especially me, as it was bank paper. My father was rather upset when I told him. The forms were obsolete & the bank had given them to a local parent to be burned. His kids found them and brought them to school as writing paper.

The bank unintentionally providing free note pads, in the form of blank checks, which were provided free to the merchants. These in turn would end up in peoples homes as note pads for grocery lists and score pads for card games. Every kid in the county knew the names of the banks from the logo on the pieces of paper in their household.

To most of the kids my age the bank was the place they went to weigh themselves for free.

Norcatur City Kids vs Country Kids: Dad & Mr Nelson, head of the Norcatur Bank had become good friends and it was decided our families should get to know each other better. The Nelson boys, one older and the other younger than I had become acquainted at the Bank Picnics. We went to their home and had a wonderful dinner. It was a Saturday night I believe and the boys were in a hurry to go down town as that's where the excitement was. As they left the house they said, "look out for country kids, keep alert so you don't get hit! I said I don't understand? They said, "we have a war on between city and country kids." I asked, "what are you fighting about?" They said, "we don't really know & it doesn't matter, but it's sure exciting!" I thought now this is dumb! Norcator’s no city it's not much bigger than Kanona, there's no difference between city and country kids. Some of my cousins are country kids, I wouldn't want to fight them. As we walked the block & a half to main street they began looking for rocks, they said, "you'd better get some rocks." I said, "but I'm not mad at anyone." They said, "as long as you are with us you'd better have some to defend yourself, they will assume your a city kid and throw at you." For about an hour we ducted about buildings and the Nelson boys exchanged volleys with some other kids. It was too dark to see well but was aware I was a target too due to some near misses, I was just as nimble as they in moving from one place to another. I could feel the surge of excitement, and it could have been fun play like game, but throwing rocks in the dark was a good way for some kid to really get hurt. I didn't have any enthusiasm for this pointless War. I believe they too grew out of it, but the experience remained as a reminder of the them vs us instinct. I was always glad such a thing was never a part of us kids growing up in Oberlin. Perhaps it was because country kids bussed in were our class mates, they were a part of us, there was no them.

Bank Picnics: I seldom saw any of the people that worked in the bank except on Saturday mornings when I collected my pay. I was normally long gone by the time they arrived. I knew most of them quite well from Bank Picnics for employees and stockholders. The picnics were a grand occasion with all the food, pop and ice cream you could eat. There were a number of kids of all ages so you could enjoy the company of adults and your peers.

Budweiser beer was the men's favorite – at Charlie’s place with straw hats tilted back, a cigar in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other; relaxed, visiting and kidding one another.

Holmer Merlin Ben Bowman Elwood Brooks Rell Landau John Peters Rell Landau Charlie Frickey

Have Plenty of Money on Hand: Elwood Brooks was president of the bank when Roosevelt closed the banks in 1933. Dad & Brooks had gone to Kansas City to meet with Federal Banking officials. They visited about the state of the economy in the community and the country as a whole. Brooks asked if there was anything that needed to be cleared up before reopening. The officials said all was well & asked if they had enough money on hand, recommending they be sure to have enough. As they started to leave they asked about the other bank. The official said they will not be opening yet, we have those sob’s right where we want them – it will be a while. When told this I asked dad, what did they mean? Dad said they had been doing things like kiting checks. I asked what’s that. That’s when you delay paying out money by using an affiliate bank, in say FL, so there is a long delay by train to clear a check – you “kited” the check to delay payment because you don’t have enough in reserve to cash the check. Thus is was that the other bank in town did not reopen for a while, a government audit revealed they were in poor shape. Dad told of carrying money in bushel baskets out of the back door of the Farmers National Bank to the Oberlin National Bank after it opened. This was to help prevent a run on the other bank and protected their own from any doubts about their money being safe. In my roll as cleaner of spittoons I was oblivious to all this. But I well remember people talking about people resorting to making out IOU's on slips of paper in order to make essential purchases during the week the banks remained closed.

<< Frank Nelson John F Peters

Luceil (Johnson) Haun was Elwoods secretary. She was attractive, pleasant and always very nice to me. Her husband was shot one Saturday night at McCook Nebr. I never did understand how it happened. In 1940 she and I rode on the same bus to KC mo. I was on my way to a Hi-Y (High School YMCA) conference in Oberlin Ohio and she to start a new life. Shortly thereafter she ended up in California as secretary to an official with North American Aviation, I never saw her again.

Oberlin Kansas Main Street, Penn Avenue, about 1910 looking North

Horses are facing Hall St, the east west highway at the time.

All transportation was by teams of mules or horses

Charlie Frickey succeeded Elwood as president about 1936. Charlie was a quite kind man with a good business head who half chewed and half smoked cigars. In this regard he and my Dad resembled each other. Charlie had cattle and hogs on trains enroute to K.C. when the stock market crashed in 1929. While enroute their value plummeted and he took a heavy loss but came out of it better than most.

My new bicycle, 1934 West side of house, barren ground finally grew over in weeds.

My Uncle Wayne in Kanona was able to order the bike “wholesale” and I paid for it from my own earnings. It was deluxe for the time, with the new balloon tires. However those depression year tires were too thin for our Texas Sandburrs. I solved that by gluing strips of truck tire inner-tube on the inside so the sticker couldn’t reach the inner tube – it worked great.

The summer of ’33 was very very hot and dry. I took refuge in the basement during the heat of the day – there was no air conditioning – not even in movie theaters just yet. Vincent and I worked for two days hoeing the weeds on the near, west, side of the house so we could plant grass. Dad finally resorted to our putting in patches of buffalo grass sod to get a lawn started.

Happy Days Are Here Again: Franklin D Roosevelt’s campaign song. For persons who were experiencing nothing but ever worsening conditions, & felt nothing but gloom, this was a song to put a smile on their face. A voice of hope in the midst of Gloom. While Hitler in Germany and Mosolini in Italy rallied people to their solution, Roosevelt came forward with peaceful solutions, breaking the European tradition from the beginning of history to solve your problems by taking from others.

Roosevelt was Swept into office: Many didn't know Roosevelt but they sure liked his song and words of optimism. They felt he was a man willing to do something for them.

#1, Close the Banks: The first thing Roosevelt did when coming to office was to close the banks. He did this to instill peoples confidence that if the bank reopened it was a sound bank and they would not need to take their money out. Banks had been folding simply because people were making runs on a bank. No bank can pay off all depositors on demand. The FNB was told they could reopen but the other bank in town was not, not for a while until there had been some changes made, then they opened about 6 weeks later. The FNB stood by with extra cash in case a run was started on the other bank, If a run started there it could spread to their own.

Buy up Gold: It was decided by Roosevelt and his long time close friend Morganthaller, secretary of the Treasury, that if people had money in their pockets they would spend it. They had to find a way to cause people to start spending money. It worked to start the trickle of a few purchases. Dad was caused to give up a couple of gold pieces he carried.

#2 Put People to work, WPA: Roosevelt started the Works Projects Administration. The federal government provided unskilled jobs for masses of the unemployed. Large numbers of unemployed were given a wheel barrow and a shovel and put to work improving such things as school grounds or any other publicly owned property. In turn they were given a pay check.

Self Respect: The public did not believe in giving or receiving hand outs. It was one thing to stand in a soup line when desperate, but what all wanted was to be able to leave the house and go to work and come home with some pay. They needed this kind of self respect, they didn't consider themselves as some one with a tin cup.

#3 Put skilled people to work, PWA The Public Works Administration followed next. This was a system by which the Federal Government provided the funds for building such things as School Buildings. This put skilled labor to work and everyone involved felt much better about it. WPA had been put together fast and continued to serve many well but the PWA built things of real lasting value. The High School at home was a typical example of many built all over the nation.

#4 Put the young men to work, CCC: The Civilian Conservation Corp was set up to provide a home for young men not yet in the work place, it provided jobs for those just entering the labor force. This was a semi military operation and was placed under the Army to set up and administer. The Col. George Marshall later Chief of Staff during WWII and a planner on staff to Gen. Pershing in WWI was one of those charged with setting up CCC camps. Those who signed up lived as soldiers, except their job was to improve facilities used by the public. In Oberlin they made significant improvements to the State park, building roads and a shelter house.

Military Preparedness, via CCC: The CCC camps were recognized by almost all as instantly convertible to military training camps. The CCC camps were being built from 1935-1937. Hitler’s activities were not going unnoticed. FDR was becoming well aware of the growing problems and desired to take steps to improve the military. The CCC camps were a way to used public funds for such preparations and at the same time be acceptable to the American public.

Banking Laws: Politicians joined the people in saying much of it was the banks fault. With foreclosure and bank failures across the land banks became a good whipping boy. Banking Laws were written which put banks in a straight jacket. Like most reforms it carried it's good with the bad.

Federal Reserve Bank: The good part was that the Federal Government set up a system which was empowered to oversee banks and to serve as a source of funds to cover banks for short terms due to cyclical conditions. For the most part this was good, accounts were insured and standards were set which defined the amount of banks money required to match investors money. In time the amount of Savings & Loan or Bank money required was modified by congress to cover up problems congress created.

Bank activities Restricted: The new legislation restricted banks to their own state and prohibited them from getting into what was considered non-banking business. In time this was to stifle the ability of banks to compete as technologies changed..

Problems of the 70'-80's: The government at the request of the people entered a phase of spending more than they took in. A classic pitfall for democracies. The population was growing older & when not at war unemployment went up. Entitlement programs began consuming large sums of money. The most prominent of these are Media Care & Welfare. Each year these costs went up and up. The Korean War, the Vietnam War, were fought as if police actions. It was politically unpopular to increase taxes to pay for fighting a War. But there is more than one way to tax.

Inflation: The government started paying for it's deficits by printing money. It even placed the social security funds that the public thought of as a savings account, they put that in with general revenue in order to have money to pay the bills.

Holding Communism at Bay: Having been caught flat footed at the time of WWI and WWII it was decided that the only way was to pool forces as with NATO and keep our military strength up. This along with many other things kept increasing our national debt. Without knowing it we were wining the contest of Free Markets vs Communism but it was driving us to the brink. To pay the governments bills Inflation had gone double digit!!!

Government Regulated Interest Rates vs Government Printing Money: During the Vietnam was the Government, Savings & Loans, & Banks were between a rock and a hard spot. The government had to borrow money, at double digit inflation they couldn't just print more. They permitted the establishment of Mutual Funds and their setting up Money Market funds which were not subject to the constraints of the banking laws. There followed a mass exodus of funds from Savings & Loans to Mutual Funds. The Banks and Savings & Loans pleaded for relief from their long term fixed loans they were locked into by law. The government back off on how much of their own money Banks/S&L had to provided, the government in effect said don't worry, we will guarantee the loans, you can take your own money out of it. The low interest fixed rate loans were sold off at a loss to a new market of investors which sometimes included government agencies.

Politicians Blame S&L's for Problems caused by Themselves: During 1989-90-91 the federal government was having to put up huge amounts of money to pay off bad debts. Because of government actions money was loaned to anyone, after all the money was not theirs, it was guaranteed by the government. There were many factors at play but the irony to me was that nobody in government wanted to face up to the fact that it was traceable to the government spending more money than they had. Some of the more astute and more humble agree there is plenty of blame to go around. Mostly it falls right back on the voters, they were expecting something for nothing.

Differences between 1932 and 1992: When Roosevelt came to office the people were poor but the government was wealthy. The US Government was awash in Gold. This was because peoples outlook was different then.

No one expected or wanted something for nothing: Everyone was quite self sufficient. Communities looked after their own via churches and other organizations. If someone got sick they died. If someone needed shelter they built a shanty out of scrap, there were no laws and regulations who said they couldn't. Most families had a garden, a milk cow, chickens; not just in farming areas but also in the outskirts of the cities. Cities were not all that big then. So long as they had to feed horses for transportation there was no problem to have chickens. The hard up could make do provided they still had good health.

If we reverted to then: The government would not pay for Dr's or even a pine box except to veterans. There would be no Medicare, there would be no Welfare, & there would be no Social Security. Many of the people alive today would have long since been buried. Nature has it's solution for those who can't keep up, today man tries to replace nature. There would be no homes for the elderly. They would live with their kids, they would die at an early time. Special care would not be available. There would be no bag women as we know of them, there would be shanty towns. There would be pockets of poverty as an accepted part of life.

Go West Young Man Go West...... No Longer an Option:

Summer of 1933 Earl Bobbitt, Francis Barclay, Lee Kump, Rell Landau, Ray Bobbitt

These brothers in law were ardent Pinochle players and got along great.