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The Way It Was: Part 2 | The Great Depression

Introduction: In the post The Way It Was: Part 1 eshrink shared his earliest memories in southeastern Ohio as a child born in 1930. He described the complex world of Jim Crow and race relations from his perspective and his earliest memories. Born during The Great Depression, eshrink (my dad) has first-hand memories of what that era was like for a boy growing up in Ohio. In this segment, you’ll get a glimpse of life, activities, and the experiences that had a major influence on his life. Even more, you’ll get a historic picture of the 1930s and 40s in middle America. Dad doesn’t suffer from revisionist history that romanticizes nostalgia as “the good ole days” and illustrates the struggles as well as the joys of the era from his perspective.
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There but for the grace of God go I…

As for the depression, I did not suffer, but it was impossible to ignore the beggars on virtually every street corner or the hoboes (often referred to as “bums”) who would appear at the back door begging for food. Much has been written about hunger during the Great Depression, but I don’t recall ever going to bed hungry.  It would be 50 years later when my older brother would remind me that there were times when Mom and Dad told us to eat first.  Likewise, it was long after their deaths that I learned that my maternal Grandfather (Spinney), a carpenter, had built them a house as a wedding present, which they had lost when the factory where my father worked shut down during the depression. 

“Scrappy” was Required for Survival During the Depression

I do recall learning that we had moved four times by the time I was 5 years old, but somehow, probably due to my father’s ingenuity, we managed to escape homelessness.  Dad was not one to miss an opportunity to make a buck and was willing to present himself as having expertise where none existed.  In those days, most houses had wallpaper throughout since interior walls and ceilings were plastered and subject to developing cracks.  Thus, when a more affluent neighbor reported they were looking for a paper hanger he presented himself as an expert though he had never so much as touched a roll of wallpaper.  Likewise, when Roosevelt passed the Rural Electrification Act, there was an immediate demand for electricians to wire houses and barns throughout the country.  He seized the moment, declared himself an electrician and set about wiring houses after consulting with a bona fide electrician friend in order to learn the essentials. 

Homelessness and Hoovervilles during the Depression

The unemployment rate was over 25%, but due to vagrancy laws homelessness was largely confined to the shanty towns constructed of scavenged materials.  Such areas were referred to as Hoovervilles in reference to Herbert Hoover who was largely blamed for the depression.  They were usually located on the outskirts of cities and towns in inconspicuous areas and were at risk for raids from law enforcement.  On the other hand, many unemployed men played a cat and mouse game with local law enforcements wandering from town to town to escape jail time. The vagrancy laws, which were established to control the black population following the Civil War, were resurrected in order to assure that homelessness would be kept out of sight.   Hope was in short supply which many had lost after months of fruitless attempts to find work.  A significant number of these men were veterans of World War I who suffered from “shell shock”, disabling physical injuries, or chronic lung disease resulting from exposure to mustard gas.  Veteran’s pensions proved hard to get and these alienated souls traveled from town-to-town hitch-hiking, walking, or hopping freight trains.  Hoboes developed their own subculture with hidden campsites throughout the country, usually migrating to the south in winter, though it was not unusual for a farmer to discover one who had misjudged the onset of cold weather sleeping in his haymow.  They shared information as to the most tolerant communities, favorable routes, and even freight train schedules. 

A Day in the Life of a Kid during the Depression

In spite of all the problems that surrounded us, we kids were busy doing what kids do. In winter, we prayed for snow and kept the runners on our sleds polished in case it happened.  Since school was so highly regimented, we were out the door as soon as we got home, weather permitting. There were no television shows or video games to keep us in the house, but there were radio programs designed for us such as: JACK ARMSTRONG ALL AMERICAN BOY, THE LONE RANGER, and THE SHADOW.  In the summer there were even more incentives to be outside, since without air conditioning the outdoors was more comfortable.  May 1st may have been a time of celebration for communists, but it was the officially designated time my brother and I were allowed to go barefooted.  It would take us several weeks to get our feet tough enough to handle walking on gravel roads.  Summers were glorious times, and Labor Day was the worst holiday of the year for the next day school resumed.  I used a lot of energy as an unwelcome “tagalong” chasing my brother and his friends.  We ran all day, swam in the creek, climbed trees, rode bikes (I inherited my brother’s beat up version), shot marbles, played cowboys and Indians, follow the leader, and all kinds of kid organized ball games.  We followed the ice truck through the neighborhood looking for chunks of ice that often fell off when the driver grabbed a chunk of ice with his tongs.  There were arguments, which were usually resolved without interference of adults, and times when a kid could learn to enjoy solitude by lying on his back in the grass watching the clouds.  Rainy days were good for making model airplanes and reading comic books.  I memorized the Boy Scout manual for I desperately wanted to be a Boy Scout. However, we never stayed in one place long enough for me to make contact.  There was also the expense of a uniform, which presented a problem. 

The BIG Event: The CIRCUS comes to town

The county fair was a big summer event, but it paled in the face of the appearance of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus.  Even if you couldn’t afford it, it still lived up to its mantra as “the Greatest Show on Earth”. I was able to attend one year and was absolutely mesmerized.  There were other circuses, but none compared to P.T. Barnum’s version.  One year, to my delight, the parade to the fairgrounds, where the circus was to set up, a show unto itself, went down the street in front of the house where we lived. We watched in awe as the elephants, and caged wagons with lions and tigers passed by.  People lined the streets, for the parade was a show unto itself.   Whenever there was a circus in town, we went to watch them miraculously set up the whole operation in a few hours with the help of elephants who effortlessly raised the tent poles to their full height.  Following the last performance, Dad would take us to join the crowd at the train station to watch them load the huge tent, people, wagons, and animals.  That frantic activity would take them into the wee hours of the night until the train pulled out, headed for the next town, where what appeared to us kids as an exciting glamorous scenario, would play out again.  Consequently, threats by disgruntled kids to “run away and join the circus” were not uncommon. 

Newspapers and Paper Routes: The Way It Was

Issued October 1952. Editor’s Note for the “Way It Was” Series: Note Newspaperboys and Busy Boys…Better Boys. Girls need not apply.

Many kids had paper routes, and there was competition for the larger ones with houses close together, although the routes for the morning paper which required one to get up by 5 AM were less popular.  Although many depended on radio for news the newspaper was still the major source of information, and reporters were held in high regard.  To take over a paper route provided a kid with a crash course in business.  His papers were dumped at a designated street corner where he picked them up, folded them into individual rolls and headed off on his route via a bicycle if he was fortunate enough to own one.  The paper boy was in effect a retailor who bought his papers and sold them to his customers.  Collecting the

money for his sales was his problem, and it was not all that unusual for a carrier to be stiffed by his customers.   In other words, when assuming the contract to become a “paper boy”, he had become a full-fledged retail businessperson with all its benefits and problems.

The printed word was an important part of everyday life since it was virtually the only source of information about the goings on outside of one’s own neighborhood.  There was intense competition, as was seen in my small town where there were at one time three separate daily papers, while some surrounding counties also had their own weekly papers of mostly local news.  The printing of a paper was very labor intensive, requiring the services of not only the men who operated the huge presses that produced the paper, but a cadre of skilled workers called typesetters who were responsible for arranging all that type to form words.  Speed was of the essence for as the name implies if it is not new it is not news.  Consequently, most daily papers were capable of producing at a moment’s notice “extras” (i.e., special editions featuring important events).

Many foreign correspondents who covered WWII became famous.  Ernie Pyle who was killed while covering action in the South Pacific gained fame for his interviews with ordinary soldiers on the front lines.  Walter Cronkite would end his career as an anchor man on television and was hailed as the nation’s most trusted source of news.  Edward R. Murrow who would later be credited for helping bring down Joe McCarthy, (perpetrator of the red scare), broadcasted from allied planes on bombing missions while on assignment in London during WWII.  Bill Mauldin’s cartoons featuring G.I. Joe portrayed the pathos and humor experienced by foot soldiers.  Photojournalists also became more important as magazines such as Life and Look gained wider circulation. 

Radio

Although during my childhood, newspapers remained the most popular source for news, radio had gained a strong presence in a few short years.  I remember listening to station KDKA in Pittsburgh, which bragged that they sent out the strongest signal in the nation.  They were the first to broadcast to large areas of the country.   Although the technology had existed for some time, such broadcasting had only begun in 1920.   In the 1930s, owning a radio became a high priority, and a new Fairbanks-Morse radio was the centerpiece of the average family’s living room.  It would be many years before FM radio was available and AM had many limitations.  Foremost was the fact that AM reception was affected by weather, and the signal strengths of other stations, which could sometimes intrude on other frequencies.  It was not until 1926 that the first radio broadcasting network, (NBC) began the process of linking local stations so that programs could be transmitted nationally. 

It didn’t take long for politicians to recognize the value of radio as a communications tool, and I recall listening to FDR giving one of his “fireside chats”.  Although I had no idea what he was talking about, I was fascinated because everyone was listening attentively to his every word.  I even remember listening to the infamous antisemitic Catholic priest (Father Coughlin).  His Sunday evening broadcasts of fascist rants attracted millions of listeners and was felt by many, to have contributed to the initial reluctance of many Americans to support Britain in their struggle against Hitler.  During its hey-day in the 1930s and 40s there was something for everyone on the radio.  With the overwhelming majority of women spending full time in the home, the so-called soap operas found a ready audience during the day, and many mothers arranged their work schedule around their favorite shows.  The serial format of those broadcasts assured that the listener would return the next day to find out how the latest crisis had been resolved.  Late afternoon was time for the after-school programs.  My favorites were the Lone Ranger and I Love a Mystery.  As was chronicled in the TV show, The Christmas Story, there were all kinds of gimmicks designed to attract kids.

Evenings were difficult, for in our house much of prime time was taken up by Lowell Thomas who was dad’s favorite news commentator.  I thought he was really cool due to his involvement in the glamorizing of T. H. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).  I can still remember his soothing baritone voice as he signed off with the words: “So long until tomorrow”.  H. V. Kaltenborn had gained a large audience and was said to broadcast his news and commentary without benefit of a script.  Walter Winchell was an ex-vaudevillian who gained fame as a gossip columnist, but later was credited with destroying the careers of multiple famous Hollywood personalities by supporting Senator Joe McCarthy’s communist witch hunt.  Winchell’s Sunday night broadcasts were rapid and staccato.  His opening intro was: “Hello Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea”.  I could never figure out where that thing about the ships at sea came from.  He was indeed a colorful figure who was alleged to consort with criminal elements during prohibition, but later in his career became a snitch for Hoover’s G-men. 

Sports

Radio must have been a boon to professional sports, as sporting events could now be reported upon as they happened.  In those days baseball was dubbed “the national pastime”, Babe Ruth was everyone’s hero, and towns of all sizes fielded their own teams, which provided opportunities for sports aficionados, such as Ronald Reagan to become play by play announcers.

Boxing was also very popular, and one of a few professional sports in which African Americans were allowed to participate. The myth of racial superiority of white people had been damaged when Jack Johnson (nicknamed the Galveston Giant) became heavyweight champion a few years previously.  His win spawned riots, and he further infuriated us bigots by marrying a white woman.  In the 1920s, white Jack Dempsey was everyone’s hero, but in the 1930s along came a black fighter named Joe Louis who is widely regarded as the greatest fighter of all time.  I recall lying on the floor in front of our Zenith radio listening to the play by play of his fights which usually did not last long as he had a string of knockouts in early rounds.  Louis was spared from the vituperation endured by Johnson as circumstances would lead this man of humble origins to become a national hero.  In the late thirties Louis had lost to Max Smelling a German, and Hitler crowed about the superiority of the Arian race.  In a rematch, Louis knocked out Snelling in the first round, and became an instant geopolitical hero even though there remained a significant number of Americans who continued to hope for “a great white hope” to unseat him.  Nevertheless, Louis had further discredited Hitler’s myth, which Jesse Owens’s had trashed in the 1936 Olympic games.

Radio Dramas and the Attack of Aliens

Prior to the development of television, in addition to news and music of all kinds, drama was an important part of radio programming.  Many programs were live, and for actors to play roles without benefit of audience or set presented many problems.  Some were even able to play two separate roles at the same time.  Sound engineers became proficient at providing sound effects, which in one instance, caused a near panic nationwide.  In 1938 a young Orson Welles presented an adaptation of H.G. Wells’s THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, which was so realistic that thousands of people, me included, thought we were actually being invaded by aliens, and panic ensued in some cases.  Fortunately, Dad was able to reassure me that it was not real.  As with most people, I am a big fan of television, yet there are times when I yearn for those days of yore when listening to the radio forced me to use my own imagination to picture the action. However, the best week of our summers were the ones my brother and I spent at our grandparents’ farm.

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for How It Was: Part 3 for a glimpse of farm life in the 1940s with my dad’s favorite past-time highlighted: eating (he was a “foodie” before it was cool).

SPORTSMANSHIP

SPORTSMANSHIP
My Grandson who plays college basketball recently told me of an episode in which the player whom he was guarding threatened to return to the campus and shoot him. Although I was very concerned, he did not take it seriously and told me that “trash talking” was part of the game. He described such talk as anything from making physical threats and personal insults to comments about one’s lineage. The goal of course is to distract, and thus gain an advantage.

The subject of the behavior of competing athletes is one of which I have little personal experience for I was that kid who was always last to be selected during a pickup game, and never made the team in high school. Consequently; my needs to compete were satisfied vicariously as a sometimes rabid fan.

Nevertheless; it seemed clear to me that this so called “trash talking” must not be very sportsman like. With that in mind, I googled the word sportsmanship and came up with the following definition: “ethical, appropriate, polite and fair behavior while participating in an athletic event and graciousness in defeat” With that I concluded that trash talking flunked the test on several counts, and that derogatory comments about an opponent’s mother were definitely unsportsmanlike.

There was a time when such disrespecting of an opponent would have been considered bad form and could lead to suspension or even dismissal from the team. Most coaches emphasized “fair play” and often ended their pregame speech with the phrase: “may the best team win.” One would be judged on how well he played rather than on the outcome of the game. Another commonly used phrase was: “it’s not if you win or lose, but how you play the game” a phrase that has now become laughable among many.

vince-lombardi

Vince Lombardi

Then in the 60s along comes Vince Lombardi whose oft quoted phrase: “Winning is not everything, it is the only thing” seemed to give license to do anything necessary to win. However it is a shame that another of his statements is so rarely mentioned, namely: “ the object is to win, fairly and by the rules …….”

QUAD_HAYES2

Woody Hayes

There were others such as Woody Hayes, the hero coach of all us Ohio State alums, who adhered to the old fashioned codes of fair play which for many seemed outmoded. He saw himself as a father figure, and as such felt the responsibility to teach his players values and self- discipline. Although strict (the toughest guy on the team would prefer to eat his jock strap rather than face his wrath), he showed that he cared about his players for more than their athletic ability. When I was an intern at Ohio State University hospital, one of his team members was diagnosed with an acute leukemia, for which at that time there was no adequate treatment. Not only did he visit the player daily, he set up a schedule for the team members to rotate visiting in order that one of them would be with him 24 hours per day.

In spite of his legendary successes, he refused pay raises retorting that money was not that important to him. His salary in 1978, his final year of coaching, was 43,000 dollars. This year our current coach, Urban Myer, received a raise and now will be making an average of 6.5 million dollars per year over the next five years. Of course if he can’t make it on that, he probably can pick up a few extra bucks with endorsements and such.

There have always been those who would cut corners (it doesn’t seem politically correct to use the word cheat anymore), witness the “Black Sox” scandal of 1919 (“say it ain’t so, Joe”), but with millions of dollars at stake for coaches, players and institutions, many athletes will be competing for more than the satisfaction of winning. The “deflate gate” episode received a great deal of attention, but was defended by many as a minor infraction. I guess it is OK to cheat if it’s only by a little bit.

In recent years it seems to me the number of scandals reported have escalated to the point they no longer garner much attention. The use of performance enhancing drugs has apparently become epidemic, and at times have been responsible for so called “roid” reactions of violent behavior. Lance Armstrong, perhaps America’s most admired athlete, was found to be using such drugs. His only defense was that everyone was doing it, and that may well be true. It raises the question as to what should be done about records which have been set with the aid of such drugs. There are frequent accounts of athletes getting into trouble in bars, which should not be surprising since TV commercials like to couple beer drinking with sports.

Under Woody’s reign any player seen frequenting a bar risked being thrown off the team. Now my alma mater has decided to start selling beer at our football games. What a wonderful idea. We certainly need more drunks at the games. I recall when discovery of alcohol in one’s possession would result in immediate rejection from the stadium.

It is not that unusual for an athlete to deliberately attempt to cause injury to opponents, and is admittedly encouraged by some hockey coaches. Many teams are said to have an “enforcer” whose job it is to intimidate players on the other team. A football player who finds himself on the bottom of a pile is at risk of being battered. In baseball “dusting the batter” often resulting in hitting him with the pitch is accepted as part of the game.

Some of the simple things that have been eliminated from sports may have also contributed to the rise in un-sportsmanship behavior. For example, it used to be customary that when a referee charged a player with a foul, the player raised his hand to acknowledge responsibility. In actuality, the hand-raising might have been more for the benefit of the people keeping the stats before the introduction of the technology we have today and the responsibility benefit was just a gratuitous benefit. But today, instead of responsibility, fouls are often met by players with academy award worthy performances of eye rolling, gesturing, and head shaking.

In 1991 part of the Detroit Pistons team walked off the court when the game was not in doubt and with only 8 seconds to play in order to avoid congratulating the winning team. This has become a classic example of a lack of graciousness in defeat. The NCAA has found it necessary to impose penalties for “taunting” an opponent, but it has now become common for a player to pound his chest and do some kind of dance after making what he considers to be a spectacular play. Now, I don’t mean to suggest that players should not be proud of their accomplishments, but would it not be more sportsman-like to let the deed speak for itself? I submit we need more players like Walter Payton, the famous Chicago Bears running back, who was nicknamed “Sweetness”, by his teammates because of his demeanor on and off the field.

Money may not be the root of all evil, but it certainly has played an important role in advancing the philosophy of winning at all costs. For the major universities the number of Heisman trophy winners or graduates going to the pros may be a more important factor in advancing enrollment than the number of Nobel Prize laureates. The bonuses offered to coaches in return for their winning a championship or bowl game testify to the value of such victories; meanwhile the cost of attending college or professional athletic events is prohibitive for many middle class families.

Man has probably tested his strength, abilities, and endurance since the beginning, and those activities continue to serve a valuable function. Such competitions have contributed to his health, and well-being except for some of the earlier sports in which the competition didn’t end until one of the participants was either dead or incapacitated. It also has the capacity to help develop character, discipline, and the abilituy to work with others to achieve a common goal. I submit it is also helpful in our maturation to experience “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.”

As I was gathering material to support my biases about this subject, daughter/editor Maggie told me a story of how she witnessed a coach of an opposing team at her son’s soccer tournament coaching the kids on how “to flop” during the game in an effort to get fouls called on the opposing team. Maggie was appalled as am I. This week there was a story of a high school coach who ordered one of his players to deliberately run into an official to retaliate for an alleged bad call.

But I am sure there are a majority of coaches who decry cheating and disrespectful behaviors. I have a friend who is one such person. He resigned as coach of a little league team because he could not tolerate the behavior of parents who were loud, belligerent, and even shouted expletives at the children. In my day, kids found a vacant field or park and played unsupervised. Now even small children are dressed in uniforms and treated as if they are adults. Some must feel a great deal of stress. I wonder what ever happened to playing for fun, and what are we teaching our kids.

I guess it has always been true that the jocks were the most popular and admired kids in school. Now those seen to have exceptional talent are often recruited by colleges while in junior high school. It is little wonder that some come to feel that their exulted status should allow them more latitude in their behaviors, and indeed there is evidence that they sometimes suffer fewer consequences which is not apt to prevent further transgressions. It requires more maturity than the average teenager possesses to deal with such early fame and adulation.

This special recognition can sometimes have negative effects. I am reminded of a high school student who I was asked to treat for depression several years ago. In reality the reason for the referral was that he had announced his intention to quit the football team. I was told that he was an outstanding athlete, and had been the key to the team’s success that year. He had been briefly hospitalized following an injury, but now had recovered. After some initial probing he said he felt as if no one cared about him. After more questioning he told me that before football no one noticed him, and after he got hurt many came to visit, but only seemed interested in when he would be able to play again. He stated that not even the coach asked him how he was feeling, but seemed only concerned as whether he would be able to play again. He was convinced that the coach whom he had counted as a friend had no interest in him as a person. Whether or not his perceptions were correct, it does point out the importance of the unique relationship between a child and his coach.

In spite of the dark sides I am convinced that sports, especially the team variety, offer much that is good. Competition motivates us to give our very best effort, to test our limits of endurance, learn to focus on task, tone our bodies, and experience the value of working together. However; in my opinion when the basic tenets of sportsmanship are ignored the outcomes are tarnished, and values diminished. I am concerned that I don’t hear many discussions about sportsmanship these days, and that there is so little shame associated with its lack. I am also concerned when I hear a Charles Barkley announce that he does not intend to be a role model, for today’s children who are in dire need of role models. I wonder how many children have watched on TV the often replayed scenario of a famous football player as he strikes a woman with his fist, and pulls her from the elevator like a sack of potatoes. Talk about role models.

I believe we should expect our sports heroes to be heroic not shameful, and I think we need to take another look at some of those corny old fashioned ways of thinking about sports.

*Thanks to my son Peter who has made use of his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of sports to advise me on the subject of this paper.

From eshrink’s editor: So, what can we do to change this trajectory toward acceptance of bad behavior in sports?

As eshrink’s daughter, I defer to the lessons I learned while we played sports and watched sports growing up with the best parents in the land! As a parent, your children are always watching you. Focus on the skills one learns from sports: teamwork, integrity, resilience, and hard work, instead of the score. It’s great to win, but a child learns much more about life when he loses as long as you guide him/her in the right way. Point out good behavior when watching sports, “It was a great contest. Even though they didn’t win, they gave it their all, never gave up and should be proud of their effort.” Point out bad behavior: for example, when watching a game recently, a player intentionally yanked another player by his face mask dragging him to the ground and then another player made the throat slashing sign in the end zone. If you ignore such behavior, your child might think it’s acceptable. And don’t be afraid to speak up to other parents who are behaving badly, coaches who are being poor examples. You can speak up without putting others down. Silence in witness of bad behavior is construed as acceptance. As a fan and a parent, don’t boo opposing teams. Instead, cheer success of your team…a good play, good team work.