Written Interview

Interview written and recorded by Chapin Waite and Spencer Jones

When looking back on the past few years, we will always remember the economic downturn that has hit our country. We will remember the havoc, media coverage on this recession, the focus on the politics and the crime. We will remember the pictures of all the houses in the United States for sale, with no one buying them. What we experienced, to us, will always be remembered as the worst possible thing that could happen. We are an egocentric species with the focus only on ourselves. If we compared our present to the past, we would consider ourselves to be lucky. Our recession could have been a depression, but it was not. Let us look back to the 1930's.

The Great Depression was occurring, this was a time period where, in Canada alone, 27% of people were unemployed. This was astonishing. Those with jobs were lucky, and even then, they may not have been making very much money. These times seem to have been forgotten in the midst of the current economical crisis. Robert "Bruce" Gordon, a survivor of the Great Depression and now 80 years old, was interviewed by Reflection Magazine to give the people of today a different viewpoint of how things were in comparison to now and what the recession could have been like.

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In the Great Depression, in terms of finances, what would your family have been considered?

My family during the Depression would have been considered poor. My parents did not work at the time and we lived off of welfare. We did not have very much and made do with what we had. For example, we had meat only once a week. My father had his own vegetable garden and we had a chicken which we used for eggs. We were considered very poor.

Where did you live? What sort of house?

I lived on Curry Avenue in Windsor. Our house was very plain, a simple wooden house. It had no basement. The house was heated with what was called a "Quebec" heater, which was essentially a stove in the living room.

What was the job status on both of your parents? What did they do?

My mother never worked, staying at home to take care of us. My father was unemployed but was trained as a cabinet maker, which is equivalent to today's carpenter. There were no odd jobs for him when he was unemployed. He would do his best to find work, but it was extremely hard. Often, he would pick and peel potatoes for the government and would receive some in compensation. He would do this for our food. For fuel for our house, he would walk along the railroad tracks and pick up fallen coal. The welfare payments were not enough to let us have enough coal, so this was a good way to help us keep warm during the winter.

What did your family have to do to get by with what they had?

We had to "tighten" our belts. We only ate basic meals and spent no money on entertainment. We did not go to the show, or buy pop and ice cream. These were rare treats that we were very excited and grateful for when we received. My mother made clothes for us, and we always repaired them. Our clothes would be patched and we would use things until no longer possible. Everything was passed down. For soap we would take the scraps and melt them together so that no soap was wasted and a new bar could be made. Special times, such as Christmas, was the hardest. Our stockings were filled with fruit and other food items we rarely got. My father, the night before Christmas would steal trees and set them up so that we would always have a Christmas tree.

What sorts of things did your family do for entertainment?

Our only form of entertainment was the radio. All kinds of shows were on the radio. Soap operas were on during the day. They were originally called soap operas because they were sponsored by soap companies like Proctor & Gamble. My mother listened to these during the day. At night there were entertainment shows like Jack Benny and Bob Hope. We listened to kids shows like Little Orphan Annie and the Lone Ranger. On occasion we went to the show, which was 10 cents, but this was very rare.

Did you go to school? Were your friends in the same financial situation as yourself?

The majority of my schoolmates were in the same boat as my family. We were all working class, and therefore had very little. There were always a few that were kids of a lawyer or a doctor, but mostly the kids were in the same boat.

Was there a definite class society in place at the time? Could you not do certain things due to your social and economic status?

No question about it, there was a class society in place at the time. People with money could still live the good life of the twenties. They could go to golf clubs and go to sporting events, places that required money. Us, who were in the working class could not. In terms of payment, for the working class, there were no credit cards. Grocery stores had in place methods where you could set up an account and pay when you got the money. They had to do this, or they themselves would go out of business. For Christmas you could pick an item in advance and pay it off over time, this was called the layaway plan. In terms of class society though, there definitely was one.

What do you think of the current economic situation in the world?

Right now it is bad, but not as bad as the recession. Things are getting better, but it's going slowly. The fear is that some country may try to get out too quickly and we may go into a depression. Another issue is devaluation. There is the paranoia that countries may devalue their money, and race to the bottom. When a country's money is cheap, wages will also go down. Right now , however, things are not near as bad as the depression.

What do you think of today's youth and the debt situation?

The youth of today do not understand the use of money. They feel they need to spend everything they have, and have no limitations to their excesses. They have lived in a time when everything has been given to them. The mental state of mind right now is that they can still live like they are rich. This is how we got in this situation in the first place. The key is to not exceed your means.

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What was hoped to be gained from this interview is that you can never forget the past. We must learn from past mistakes and never make them again. In the present, even though things may seem bleak, times are still good in comparison to what could be and we must strive and discipline ourselves to not let things get to where they were before. After all, the only way the depression ended was through the Second World War.