Life During the Great Depression
Elsie Freeman
We were living in L.A. during the depression in the late ‘20s, two young people with 2 small children. Thanks to my training we were semi-prepared for it. When building slowed down so did we and we had a little saved. I knew if we had the cash around we would spend it. So I would go to the bank and draw out $20.00 a week—out of this we kept on top of utilities and rent and food. It sounds impossible to me when I think of it.
When the bank closed on a Friday it hit hard. We had some change but we couldn’t go to the bank or write a check for no one would could cash it, but we were blessed because we did have food. Up to this time Lee got a job selling cosmetics, now he was out of work doing stoop labor on a Japanese farm. For this he received a soup bone once a week, and a fish once a week, all the vegetables we could eat, and his shoes soled when needed. So we were able to go on our own and not depend on welfare. Gasoline was 5 gallons for $1.00 and food was cheap. I think hamburger was 10¢ a pound, etc., and we still had a little cash. As time passed and no let up in sight, I made a list of friends that had state jobs to see if it got to the point where it was needed that I would ask them to feed my little ones.
I was blessed tho, as we had decided to take the summer off and go to Utah for the summer so we could help his mother who was a widow. So we put our furniture in storage and left. I guess we were there 3 weeks and had done a lot around the place. My stepfather had been after us to come to Idaho and go on a fishing trip so this we did. We were camped and fished one day when we were brought a telegram from an L.A. contracter asking Lee to go to Ogden and take the yardage on the Forestry Building, so we packed and went to Ogden. He measured the yardage and phoned collect to the contractor who called a few days later that he had got the job and would Lee stay and do it. As it would only be a small job of six weeks we figured we could be back in L.A. for Jack to start 1st grade and we would have a little cash again. But, due to a steel strike and no material, he didn’t finish till Nov. and we got back to L.A. before Thanksgiving. Looking back it was one of the happiest summers we had.
We were camped in a trailer park at the mouth of Ogden Canyon, slept in tents and used community kitchen & shower & facilities. He was working as a bellhop at the Jonathan Club when we went on vacation. When we got back to L.A. with the promise of steady work (Baash Ross Tool Co. Coil pipes to drill thru), we got our furniture out of storage and rented a house. We were there about 18 months and then bought our home in South Gate. When things picked up so many had lost their homes and the banks sold them, sometimes just for what was left to pay the first time.