What makes history so interesting, and relevant, to us today is something we often forget....these events happened TO REAL PEOPLE!
People with families, struggles, senses of humor, mortgage payments, in love etc. all went through these events and experienced them differently.
So, for this week's blog, please listen to journalist Studs Terkel interviewing people from the Depression era to get a glimpse into their stories.
For the comments, write 200 words on what you took away from this listening assignment.
Start at 5:30 and end at 37:45.
For this weeks blog I choose an interview from Stud Nerkel and it is titled, “Interview with children of people who went through the depression.” He asks the lady what does “the depression” mean to her, and she responds with “stories”. She says how she grew up with her mother always telling stories of what times were like when she was growing up. She realized that even at the time she is at now, (1971) she is so much more privileged than the people were then and that her mother wanted her to learn and understand that so she will always be grateful for what she has. She said that her mother would relay the message that times were really tough at the time, she calls it “black humor” now because it’s like we can’t even imagine what life would be like if we went through everything they did. She told of this story that her mother use to tell her that was, her moms brothers would always go out at night with rifles or some type of gun and stand out there and hunt for food so they would have dinner that night, and if they didn’t come back that night with food, there was no dinner for them. Her mother said “there was truly some hungry stomachs. It was just too much for a poor girl.” Then the lady being interviewed says “I don’t think the generation now can fully comprehend and understand what all this means and what everyone really went through on the daily basis. It was sad. My mom is very much ashamed of the hard times and the depression, but she always made a point to share it so we would know how lucky we really are.” Sometimes we forget that these events happened to real people just like ourselves. (306)
ReplyDeleteIn the blog this week one of the interviews was that. He asked a woman when she started noticing the depression and she said, “ when we came home from school one day and my mom told us to go to the soup lines.” Then she talked about how they had to bring their own soup buckets and ask the person who gave them food to dip down further so that they could get potatoes meat that was in their and the server would not do it. She also talked about how when they were in the house and she remembered that the only thing that they had to eat in the house was mustard they had no bread or meat it was just mustard. She also talks about how they loved going to soup line because they would laugh and play and all they thought was that they were going to get food. Also about how people blamed President Herbert Hoover for what had happened and that they would say it was all his fault. She talks about how she only went through sixth grade and got married at 15. Then her and her husband started traveling and were migrant workers picking oranges to make money for a while.(209)
ReplyDeleteThis weeks blog was about people that studs Terkel interviewed. He interviewed hundreds of people and chose 6 or 7 of those peoples stories to wright about in his book. He mainly asked them questions of big events that happened during the Great Depression. Some of the key topics people talked about was the shortage of jobs and their struggles. One person talked about the situation of the kids and how they were on the streets hungry and scared and another person talked about her childhood because she was a child during the Great Depression. All the stories that I listened too were kind of sad and made you feel for them and what they were forced to go through. Although I did not take the time to listen to all of the interviews I did read through most of the titles and saw how he interviewed people who were artists writing songs about it and kids and people who were trying to provide for their families, hoping that they would not get a pink slip that day like many had already gotten before them. In conclusion all of the stories that I looked and listened too I found pretty sad and felt bad for them for having to go through that especially the kids. (215)
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ReplyDeleteLouis "Studs" Terkel, who died in the Fall of 2008, was an American author and broadcaster. He is remembered for his oral histories of common Americans and for hosting a radio show in Chicago. One oral history is “The Great Depression: In Their Own Words.” Terkel assembled the audio records of various persons remembering this period in history. His records included the words of people from various walks of life: the wealthy, the poor, city dwellers, black and white Americans, and farmers. He even recorded the words of prison inmates.
ReplyDeleteWhen The Great Depression began around 1930 the value of money invested in the stock market decreased to the point that wealthy investors were made poor overnight. The ordinary citizen who depended on the jobs provided by the wealthy, lost their jobs. Poor people who lived on farms could not sale the crops they produced because there was no money to buy them. The terrible beginning of this era was made worse by the 1930s Dust Bowl; a weather situation where the land of the prairie states had little rain and the winds blew the top soil away. President Roosevelt responded to this economic disaster with a series of programs known as the New Deal. One example mentioned in the recordings is the Works Progress Administration (WPA). This was an ambitious government program that provided jobs and income to the unemployed during the worst years of the Depression.
The oral history assembled by Studs Terkel reflects the thoughts, hopes, and prayers of different people who had to endure these terrible times and lived through it. Many more did not make it because it was too hard to make a living; still others took their own lives because the burden was to hard. (292)
Studs terkel redefined the term “oral history”. He also wrote a book about the tough times that people went through during the great depression called “hard times”. People were struggling just to have heat and bread and the first question to people when someone brought food to the house was how much did it cost. Food was low cost compared to today at a restaurant a black man was recalling the times that his black parents were feeding white families. At the restaurant you could get a meat and 3 vegetables for 25 cents. From 1935 to 1939 a man took photographs of fashionable people during the era. These people were the people that many other people aspired to be. Bread lines were not common in new york but beggars on street corners were very common in new york during this era of tough times. Many people lived off friends some had friends who had cashed in bonds for money during this era and people stayed with friends who had an extra bed or two. People would be interviewed about how they are living during this time with questions like “how are you living” or “who were you living with during the depression”. (203)
ReplyDeleteStubs Terkel was an oral historian whom interviewed hundreds of people across the United States for his book on the Great Depression of the 1930s. I personally thought it was interesting that in 1973 he had his in radio station :Studs Terkel Program on WFMT radio (Chicago, IL) since I assume on that time radio was the largest form of entertainment. Implying that having one would make one successful. His interviews were focused on different people who experienced the Great Depression. As I was searching through his videos to try and find one without really annoying beeping I found something really profound. That was at the start of each one he asked what does the Great Depression mean to you. I found that surprisingly deep since it conveyed that each person had a different experience and interpretation of it. This idea was further expressed as one he was interviewing the children of Great Depression parents one young woman spoke of how her mom seemed ashamed that she lived through it and her uncle was proud of it. It was really interesting to me to hear about the different experiences and environments due to my previous notion and knowledge of it. Whcih was mostly due to my great grandma who didn’t seem to have it that bad compared to others since she lived on a farm. Although all the interviews are great Terkel said something which surprised me. He said that there was know way that he or the child of the parent in the depression could ever truly understand what it was like hoping you could find a squirrel to hunt in order to not starve. That was very interesting to me because due to my past experiences I was used to hearing “you have it easy compared to when I was growing up” so I liked how these people 50 years ago somewhat acknowledged that to and obviously seemed to carry on the tradition of hating the new generation which their responsible for raising. (335)
ReplyDeleteThe very first interview that was played was very interesting to me because the lady said that she was basically self taught to stay away from grocery stores because she knew her father had no money and anytime they brought home eggs or bread or any type of food they would ask how much it was. I also found it so incredible that the electric bill used to be a single dollar a month families still couldn’t afford it, even though you are accounting for inflation that still doesn’t seem like a lot of money, and that tells just how dire this was people. One lady talked about how her father was looked down upon by the “richer” kids because they say the people who worked for the company who gave him a job opportunity when he needed one as lazy even though they knew nothing about it which shocked me because it seems like they would work the hardest seeing as their families were basically starving so how did that stereotype even start. And that during this time in history people wouldn’t look down upon anybody given the circumstances of the country. I also found a very interesting YouTube channel by the name “Great Depression Cooking” before fall break which is an old lady named Clara teaching recipes that her parents would cook for her during the Great Depression that I think you would find very interesting.(238)
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“Terkel interviewed hundreds of people across the United States for his book on the Great Depression of the 1930s.” I listened to “Interview with Children of People Who Went Through the Depression.” This interview was given random children in 1971. Throughout the interview Studs Terkel touched a couple main points while talking to the children. some of the main topics was their lifestyle as children how they felt during the depression and their relationship with their parents through it all. Most of the children didn’t have anything good to say about the depression other than some of the family stayed together in some of their family separated. They also talked about the economic growth during the depression and how their parents were financially unstable and could not supply food or even housing sometimes this makes me great very grateful for what I have. It honestly broke my heart to hear what these kids went through at such a young age when they didn’t even have a choice on their future they went through so many struggles with their family this was a traumatizing event in American history and I think we can all learn to grow from it(200)
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