Margaret Barrett: Introduction

• Transcript

  MARGARET: Well my name is Margaret Genteman Barrett. I was born in O'Fallon, Missouri on a farm called, at the time, it was called Breezy Point but it really was, became Fort Zumwalt.

  MARGARET: December 13, 1917 was my birth date.

  MARGARET: In 1929, I was 12 years old and I really do remember how everyone was so disturbed about the crash of the stock market and it affected the banks in our town. And there were two banks in our town at the time. One had been founded, oh my grandfather was one of the founders of the Bank of O'Fallon in 1903 and that bank survived but the other bank in O'Fallon went bankrupt and those people lost everything.

  MARGARET: There were people without jobs and people who, the really people who suffered most were people who depended on their jobs like, just working for other people. And so they weren't hiring anybody anymore and the farmers who were renters and they were hard hit too because those years were very-- well a farmer who rented I think a third of whatever he grew, his crops went to the landlord. And if he didn't have a good crop that year well everybody suffered then. And that's why during the depression years the government started what they called the production credit association for farmers. And that allowed them to make loans through the government on their cattle, their crops, their intended crops because they bought, they made loans to buy seed to plant and for feed for their cattle that they owned. And my father was a secretary treasurer of the St. Charles County production credit association. And he had this little office in town which was one of his supplementary jobs because he lived on the farm of course and they had the dairy farm. And I worked for him when I was 16 the summer between my senior and junior year that was 1934 and I took applications from these farmers who came in. And some of them were so poor they just wanted to buy a, borrow $50 to buy seed to plant. And to do this, they had to fill out, well I asked the questions and I had the forms, and they had to list everything they owned -- all the cows, horses, pigs and whatever they owned. If they were renters, they had to list that as collateral for the loan and agree if it was for a crop then they took a lean on the crop that was to be planted too so they were pretty sure being paid back. And I took applications at one summer between my junior and senior year and then the next year after I graduated I went to work full time there for my dad. Well my dad was the boss and I was one of the secretaries and there was another girl who also took applications. And I think some of these farmers, they came in and here was this little girl taking applications and asking them all these questions about everything they owned and you know how they were going to repay these loans.

  MARGARET: I worked there for him for a year and a half. And then they moved the office to St. Charles and my dad quit that and someone else took over. And so I went to St. Louis, came down to St. Louis age 19, in 1937 and stayed with my cousins the Debrecht’s for three days and I went out and registered, went downtown and registered with employment agency and I had a job within three days with-- My first job was with Diamond Match company and I worked for them for four years. My first salary was $18 a week. Oh when I worked for the PCA that was only $30 a month and then after I worked there full time they did raise it to $60 a month.

• Introduction
• Where did you live during that time?
• Did you notice people helping each other more during the Depression?
• What things did your family do to get through the Great Depression?
• What was school like during the Depression?
• Did you have modern conveniences in your home like electricity?
• Did you have a radio during the Depression?
• Full Interview

Raymond and Anna Marie McIntyre:

Raymond (born in 1923) and Anna Marie (born in 1927) discuss how neighbors and family helped each other during the Depression, entertainment during hard times, their jobs and salaries and transportation options.

• What was popular for entertainment during the Depression?
• How did you get around during the Depression?
• What types of jobs did you have then?
• Discussing a Christmas party held during the Great Depression...
• Were you affected by banks closing?
• How were you helped by the Works Progress Administration?
• What lessons did you take away from the Great Depression?
• Full Interview

Byron Gross and Sam Weber:

Byron (born in 1914) and Sam (born in 1913) talk about President Roosevelt’s fireside chats, how the crisis affected them and their fellow St. Louisans, and lessons they learned from the Great Depression.

• Introductions
• What were you doing during the Great Depression?
• What were some difficult adjustments you had to make during the Depression?
• Discuss the conditions endured by some during the Depression.
• Were you affected by bank closings during the Great Depression?
• What was it like to listen to Roosevelt's fireside chats?
• A story about helping each other to get by...
• What was something people wished for?
• Lessons Byron took away from living through the Great Depression...
• Lessons Sam took away from living through the Depression...
• Full Interview

The Great Depression Curriculum Interview series, recorded in 2008, is made up of conversations with St. Louis-area residents who lived through the Great Depression. The interviews provide students with first-person accounts of life between 1929 and 1940.

Teachers can get students talking about the videos with discussion questions (pdf) based on the interviews.

For additional Great Depression-related multimedia resources, from newsreels to oral histories, visit our audio and video collections.