I was born one month after the crash, in Dayton Ohio so cannot comment on personal memories but I did get my basic outlook on life during it. My parents had moved from a house my father built in 1916 to a newly bought house in 1928. My father who had owned a Lumber Yard died in 1932 from a post operative infection after an appendectomy. Mother lost the house and we( my four older brothers and sisters and I) moved back to the one father had built. Oldest sister (then 18) came home from college, went to a secretarial school, and got a job at Delco Co. My older brother, two years younger than she, went to local business school instead of college and got a job as a teller in a bank in 1932. They lived at home and helped support the family with their earnings. Sister married in 1936 but brother continued to help support the family until he went into army in 1942. Mother’s grandfather had started a business which continued in business during the depression. She had preferred stock from it to give $50 a month income. She had income of $30 a week since the family friend who bought the Lumber Yard dad owned named her Secretary of the corporation. The lumber yard continued in business. A monthly income of $170 and contributions from siblings gave us basic food and clothing for a bit more than $28/person/month. Mother canned all our fruits and vegetables bought from huckster who came weekly. Kept the family 1929 Franklin auto until 1939 but usually rode bus.

It was rough. I’m not crying but wou’ll get the idea. Father died in 1930 leaving 8 children, Mother worked in a hospital laundy for $7. a week, 10 hours a day for 6 day weeks. Oldest sister got job in 1931 for Sales Tax department for the State that helped out. Farmer relative would bring vegtables every now and then. How Mother ever made it was a miracle. Go bless her.