Breadlines were common during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Twenty-five cents for a bag of bread! There were no credit cards. Cash or you didn't eat, so you had to be careful when spending. Families were fed and lived off the land, growing food and raising chickens. Though the depression pushed some over the edge...
Indeed, it was those experiences that changed the lives of Mr. Dee and Mary Rivas who are survivors of the 'Great Depression'.
Dee Rivas is now 85-years-old, and grew up in Hanford, California, in the San Joaquin Valley picking cotton, apricots, grapes, and peaches. He said, "I hated picking cotton because I did not get paid much from the sale of cotton." "Mom canned everything from apricots to peaches and tomatoes," he added. There were seven children in the family. My father worked for $.10 per hour (for depressed wages) doing farming in a sense, working more or less just for food. "We were poor," said Rivas. "It was hard for my sister to find work. We had no money in the bank."
Mary Rivas is now 86-years-old, and grew up in Vernon, California in a family of six children. At age 9 in 1931, "I was picking walnuts with my brothers and sisters," she said. Kids got jobs to help the family. "Even though times were hard, families pulled together."
Dee and Mary grew up at a time when mothers were homemakers and fathers were the sole breadwinner and they struggled to put food on the table. It was a time when conversations at the kitchen table were about affording the necessities of life and keeping families together. Mary was 7 years old in 1929 when the Great Depression hit. She remembers the early days were tough. "Something was wrong," she said. Times were tough, families lost jobs, money in the bank and in some cases they lost their homes. Mary said, "We were not rich, but we were well off before the depression."
Mary's dad worked at the Texaco oil refinery in Wilmington, California. "Dad used to save his money in the bank. They read in the paper of hard times ahead. Her dad went to the bank to withdraw money, but there were long lines. Dad joined the line at the bank and waited for hours. They told him that he did not have any money left — may be later on, but later on never came." "Dad lost his savings and he never trusted the bank again," Mary said.
"In addition to losing his saving, dad lost his job at Texaco. We lost our house and followed grandma to Vernon, California." Mary drew a line on the kitchen table as she recalls street cars passing through Vernon where they rented a house for six dollars a month. "We had a hard time even trying to make the rent," she said. Dad found work on a farm, picking and packing produce. The family struggled through the hardships of the Depression. They survived by eating vegetables off the farm where dad worked.
At that time, Herbert Hoover was the President. Mary remembers Hoover stating that he was going to put chicken on every table and a car in every garage. There were government programs, but her dad was a proud man and he refused the help. During the Great Depression, the schools closely monitored kids to ensure they were getting enough to eat. The school provided half-pint milk, peanut butter sandwiches and a fruit. Mary was a skinny child. She said the teachers wanted to know if she was eating enough, so they asked her to bring her parents to school. When the teachers found out how little dad was making, they wanted him to apply for welfare.
"Well, my dad stood up and told them in his broken English, 'I came to this country to make a living, I am healthy, I can do it, and I don't want any help from no one.' We never got help, we struggled, wore Goodwill shoes and clothes. Our relatives would help and if they had leftovers they would share with us — That's how we survive. My dad was a proud man."
Mr. Dee and Mary Rivas have been married sixty years and have three adult children. Today, they are retired and live in Riverside, California. Although the Rivas' seldom eat out, when they do, they buy one meal and split it. "You have to live through the Great Depression of the 1930's to understand," Mary said.
Mary said, "We are in a very different place than the U.S. economy was in the 1930's... The stimulus package is encouraging people to continue wasteful spending." "Easy come, Easy go," she said. "Who encourages people to be careful?"
Dee does not think the US is heading in the same direction as the 1930's. "We have Unemployment benefits, Social Security and other government programs," he said.
Sheannette Virtue is a writer for Carib Press.
Photos by Sheannette Virtue
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