Posted: 3/26/03

Folks ëmade do,í waited for happy days

(Editorís Note: The following Reflections column was first published on Oct. 7, 1982 as the first of a two-part installment on the depression. It is reprinted here as part of the newspaperís coverage during its 100th year. This column and future Reflections columns are in tribute to the author who died on Friday, Feb. 7, 2003.)

Elsie Vogel
Times Correspondent

ìHappy Days are Here Again, The Skies Above Are Clear Again: Let Us Sing A Song Of Cheer Again, Happy Days Are Here Again.î This song composed by Milton Ager was played at the 1932 Democratic Convention and became a campaign song for Franklin D. Roosevelt. The catchy tune seemed to express just what most of the voters felt would happen if they elected Roosevelt. They were looking for someone to turn the tide of despair and hopelessness in this Great Depression.

The country could not be turned around overnight but Roosevelt, as President, had swift, bold and innovative ideas. Ideas that were to have effects even today. The President used the radio to give reassuring ìfireside chatsî. He seemed like a father talking about public affairs in a family living room.

He assumed his office on March 4, 1933, and immediately put some ideas into motion.

Bank Holiday

One of the first acts of the Roosevelt Administration was to declare a four-day bank holiday or moratorium on March 6. All banks were closed! This action stunned people across the country. Roosevelt turned to the radio to address the nation, appealing for public confidence in solving the banking crisis.

A ìbrain trustî, a nick-name for Rooseveltís group of advisors, met with leading bankers to find a solution. This moratorium provided an interval during which Congress could pass remedial legislation.

The Forest Lake State Bank was owned by the W.J. Regan family when the holiday was ordered. Elmer Johnson, Forest Lake, former Cashier and Vice President, recalls the actions taken here at that time.

Depositors were asked to sign half of their deposit account to form the ìParticipating Trust Fundî. The Regans promised to repay the depositors and that promise was kept. (One of the few banks that did).

Eleanore McGowan, present Assít Cashier and Auditor, in charge of the special account made regular payments to the depositors. The final payment was made in 1952. In 1934 Federal Insurance was passed, insuring all accounts up to $10,000. That of course has since been increased to $100,000.

Repeal of Prohibition

Prohibition (the 18th Amendment) was repealed February 1933, and was ratified by the necessary 36 states by December.

The Hammís, Schmidtís and Yoergís breweries in St. Paul started hiring men to make 3.2 beer. Soon there were beer distributors delivering the cases and barrels to the bars, taverns and cafes throughout the state.

Forest Lake Liquor Bars

Mrs. Eugenie Hendrickson, owner of Hendricksonís Cafe and Hotel, located on the corner of Lake and Broadway, installed a liquor bar on one wall of her cafe before the separate bar room was built. In the middle of the block, Tony and George Valenty opened a bar room next to Valentyís Pool Hall (presently the closed Klondike Bar). The commercial Hotel, owned by E.G. Finnegan (recently the Forest Laker) put in a bar also.

Now bartenders and more waitresses were hired as the public started to sample all the new drinks. They soon became familiar with a ìPink Ladyî, ìWhiskey Sourî and a ìBootlegî made with fresh mint.

Repealing Prohibition was indeed a business stimulant. The illegal neighborhood bootlegger disappeared as liquor became legal. ìSpeak-easiesî closed up and father stopped making home-brew.

WPA

There were always pictured two sides to WPA: one, the real work that was accomplished; and the other, the cartoons of WPA workers leaning on shovels.

The local WPA workers made a football field, just left of the high school, that area is of course built over the various school additions. They worked on sidewalks and roads in town and also on our Lakeside Park.

Perhaps the largest project was building all four of the main buildings at the Carlos Avery Game farm. Many of the roads and dikes they built through the refuge are still used today according to Harold Westby, former general repairman at the Refuge.

Ladies work projects

Many of the widowed ladies, without means of support, and ladies who had to add to the family income did whatever work they could find. Some ìtook in washing,î baked homemade things for sale, did sewing and altering and of course ìhouseworkî outside of the home.

For a time there was a work project for the ladies, subsidized like the WPA. The ladies assembled at the old white-frame Forest Lake Village Hall. They tied quilts, hemmed sheets and towels and did other sewing projects. This was indeed a time when the ladies needed all the help they could get.

Social Securities Act

The light green Social Security checks arriving the third of each month are a life saver for many Americans today. They sometimes mean the difference between elderly persons maintaining their independence as opposed to going on a welfare plan. In some instances itís no check, no food.

The Social Securities Act began Aug. 14, 1935. The plan was to levy taxes on workers and employers to support a broad plan of old age annuities.

Those first workers paying into the fund paid one percent of their wages and their employers also paid one percent. At this point one must remember how low the wages were then. Today, the workers and employer each pay 6.7 percent up to the first $32,400 annual taxable income.

ìUnemployment Compensation,î another plan drawn up about the same time, was designed to help workers who lost their jobs. At the present time of high unemployment many workers are very glad for this plan implemented about 47 years ago. Only the employer pays into this fund.

Heat Wave and Dust Storms

Not only were people suffering the indignities of the Depression but it seemed the elements also conspired against them.

Forest Lake people will remember several summers of the early ë30s. Day after day the temperature soared to the high 90ís and not a drop of rain. How fortunate to live at a lake! It offered such a relief from the heat. Our swimming beach was crowded, especially in the evenings when entire families came to cool off.

The level of our lake was very low by the end of the summer, many will remember how far out we had to walk to reach swimming depth. With lack of rain came several other miseries, such as the dust storms. The hot winds blew and blew and carried not only the top soil from the parched fields of the Dakotas, but our local soil was also being scattered along with it. The air, filled with dust particles, was a dirty tan color.

At times there were sections of the highway, for instance, near Hugo or on US 8 in the Lino area where visibility was near zero.

The sand piled up like little sand dunes on the window sills, penetrating every crack, you could even feel the fine grains in your mouth. Housewives gave up on house cleaning. These were the days of the ìdust bowl,î a tragic time for farmers.

Peat Fires

Another aggravation... if it wasnít dust, it was smoke. Peat bogs burned west of town, were fires that were virtually impossible to extinguish. They smoldered for weeks at a time and the blue haze was spread for long distances.

Childhood Memories of the Depression

Many people who I talked with about the Depression, said they didnít realize when they were young, that they were poor. They had enough to eat because they had a garden and mother canned vegetables and berries. There were melons to eat, and apples from the trees lasted well into the winter.

They wore ìhand-me-downî clothing, but all of their friends did, too. It was nothing for three girls in one family to wear the same yellow checked dress. When it came their turn, the hem went up or down to make it fit.

Mothers made some of the prettiest dresses from feed sacks from Houleís Feed Mill. They came in flowered prints and other designs. There was an old saying, it went something like this.

ìMake it do,

Pass it on,

Wear it out.î

The fellows wore their brothers clothing and mothers sewed boys shirts, too. Going barefoot in summer saved on shoes.

School lunches

Kids shared. Instinctively they knew when others had a skimpy lunch from home: those were the ones who had lard spread on the bread instead of butter. An extra apple or half a sandwich helped a hungry friend.

It was at this time that the girls in the Home Economics Department at Forest Lake High School helped make hot lunch to be served at noon. One day they would fix a baked potato, or tomato soup, or cocoa, etc. It was served in a big white cup and cost pennies; if it wasnít possible to pay it was given anyway. Undoubtedly it was under a state or federal plan.

Spending Money

Norman Tolzmann recalls how he and his brothers Ray and the late Leonard Tolzmann made a little spending money (sometimes they included sister Catherine).

They trapped gophers for bounty money. They would go to the Wyoming Township clerkís house with their cache. Spreading newspaper on his kitchen table the clerk would carefully count the pairs of gophers feet the boys brought in. The pocket gophers paid five cents a pair and the striped gophers brought three cents for the front and hind feet.

Making that kind of money enabled the boys to come to town on Saturday night (that was the big night in Forest Lake).

They could go to the show for 10 cents, spend five cents for popcorn, then maybe go across the street to the hamburger shop for a bottle of pop which also cost a nickel. Before going out the door, a stop at the candy counter and there went the last nickel on a candy bar. A quarter went a long ways those days.

Do any of you remember this? Eating an Eskimo Pie as slowly as possible and after licking the last of the ice cream and chocolate off the stick found it said, ìFreeî and you got another Eskimo Pie? One of lifeís greatest pleasures.

Forest Lake Graduates, 1932

Graduation and the whole big world ahead of you. What was it like in 1932?

If you planned to go to college you undoubtedly had worked at any kind of job in the previous summers, scrimping and saving all you could. If you planned to work for your room and board off campus you could probably make it that way.

Tuition was $30 a quarter at the U of M. Without too much money for books you used the libraries at the University. If you planned to enter the business world, business college tuition was $18 a month and they would help you find a place to work for room and board. There were a few 1932 class rings that brought $2.50 at the pawnshop, rings that were later redeemed.

Looking for a job meant filling out applications and hearing, endlessly, ìWeíre not hiring now.î You bluffed and lied about your qualifications as you stubbornly tried place after place to get a job. For those who did get jobs, wasnít it amazing what you could do with the wages of ten to twelve dollars a week?

Making Fun Times

There had to be fun times too. There were dances to go to, with good bands playing. Everyone chipped in on the gas to get there, (gas was about 20 cents a gallon) and ladies had free admission. It was a good time for everyone.

There were house parties with guests bringing something to eat (could that have been the start of pot-luck?). People played lots of cards and just served treats to nibble on. To this day I canít eat sardines and crackers without remembering... they were really cheap, five cents a can. You made your own fun in that much simpler time.

In these two weeks I have only touched on a few segments of the Great Depression. The people who lived during that time have their own memories and experiences. Some people said they didnít want to remember some things, they wanted to forget it. Some thought this present generation should hear about it.

Yes, the Depression was a sad story. Hopefully, it will never happen again.

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