[VMI70]

Another 1947 here--11/30--Born in Washington, DC, raised in Chevy Chase, MD.

The things I remember most were the stories my parents told about the Great Depression:

They were newlyweds living in a 3rd floor apartment in Washington Square in New York.
-My father was a Harvard Law ('32) graduate, and made $25.00 a week working in his uncle's law firm.
-He was a VMI graduate, so he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the reserves, which he thought would bring in some extra money. At the first weekend meeting, they were told to deploy at night to patrol the areas around the grocery stores. They were also told to shoot to kill anyone breaking in. He immediately resigned his commission because, as he said: "There were a lot of people who were (really) starving", and he just couldn't bring himself to shoot them.

-Mother said that a loaf of bread was a nickel,
-a quart of milk was 15 cents--a dime if you brought your own bottle,
-for $5.00 a week, they had a maid 6 1/2 days a week,
-one incident where the guilt stayed with mother all her life was when she interviewed a potential maid, who had come down on the bus from Harlem. When the interview was over, and she didn't get the job, she asked mother if she could have the 10 cents it cost her for the round trip bus fare. Mother refused to give her the dime and never got over it.

There were many more stories like that, but the most amazing thing was that mother said the depression was a cake walk compared to the upheavals of the 1960s and early '70s. That's saying something.

[The Citizen Soldier]

Another 1947 here--11/30--Born in Washington, DC, raised in Chevy Chase, MD.

Same birth date, last day in November. Born AND raised in Stocton, California. Guess you know we share the same birthday with Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Dick Clark.

Cheers!