Don Fahy And The Great Depression

Dirt. Death. Dryness. Depression. This is what the people of America had to face during the early twentieth century. The Great Depression began with a deadly stock market crash in 1929, and for the next decade, the economy of America suffered greatly. It was a time of loss and pain for many people. But what about the kids that grew up during it—how did they deal with it all? Well, by talking to Don Fahy, I learned exactly what it was like. Don Fahy was born on February 10, 1922 in Sidney, Nebraska. Sidney was a very small farm town with a population of about 3300 people. He grew up with two great parents and one sister. He was about seven years old when the Depression started, however throughout the heart of it he was a teenager. He had
He went to school and hung out with his friends, too. During a typical day he would go to school, do his work around the house, then go play outside with his friends. He went to a very small high school with a total of about 100 students. I asked him about schools during the 1930s and if they were greatly affected by the Depression. He said he doesn’t remember the schools themselves being affected much by the Depression, except for there was sometimes a shortage of typewriters because of the obvious lack of money. He said they didn’t have extra curricular activities and computers like we have now, but as far as school itself kids were as dedicated then if not more than they are now. He told me about playing baseball with other kids in the community. They all had their neighborhood teams. He talked about the huge difference in kids playing baseball today and the kids that played during his childhood.. They didn’t have fancy little uniforms and corporate sponsors’ names on their jerseys like you see at little league games today. They might have had twenty-five kids out to play and they were lucky to scrounge up nine gloves. But they didn’t care. They had fun with what they had and didn’t miss anything because they simply didn’t know any different. However baseball was just one of his many childhood memories. He remembers going to see movies with his friends for just ten cents! He also remembers things like buying a big Baby Ruth candy bar for five cents! He would save up his pennies and feel really great about earning his candy bar. Growing up the way he did, it’s sometimes hard to fathom how much kids live today. But then in turn he could have never imagined anybody ever living the way we do now because he lived how everybody else