[Red Jones]

I agree with you. Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was a novel, not history. It portrayed experiences that some americans had at the time. We all know that unemployment went to 35% in the 30's. We all know that one third of banks went bust in a 2 year period of time and that the money supply contracted by one third also during that time. Lots of people who had money deposited in banks lost their money. People were actually going hungry on a large scale back then even though farmers couldn't sell their food. Farmers were hiring people to work charity jobs on their land and paying the workers in terms of food rather than money because the economy did in fact break down.

[JudyB1938]

It was also a time when after The War that there were a lot of Veterans begging on the streets downtown. They were the ones with no legs, scooting around on a board with wheels on it. Or the ones who'd been blinded. But never the "shell-shock" ones. I don't know where they were, but they weren't visible. The only one I knew was cared for by his family. I was scared to death of him, because my grandmother told me he was "crazy".

There was also "Crazy Annie" who rode around town on her three-wheel bicycle. She'd been a nurse who broke down serving overseas. Everybody watched out for her, because they had such admiration for her and pride in how she'd served our country.

Of course, these "war stories" have nothing to do with the topic of this thread. Get an oldie to reminiscing, and all kinds of memories come flooding back.