The Great Depression

I was no longer living from paycheck to paycheck and life was good for a simple ole’ farmer like myself. I was getting by with ease even when my crops weren’t paying the expenses for life on the farm. This was all thanks to “booming” Stock Market that was making ever one rich. The Stock Market was a huge gamble that was somehow paying off for nobody’s like myself. During this booming time period my crops were not cutting it and I was on the verge of losing everything. I was contemplating on selling everything I had and using the money my father had saved for any tough times that I would encounter on the farm and moving to the city to find a new career or to gamble the money and put it into a stock market investment. Well on the nice and calm day of May 21, 1927 I had slept on the decision and decided to gamble all my money into the stock market. I started of with putting a little at a time and it soon grew as an addiction for me and I always needed more. The Stock Market began declining but the addiction I had to getting as much as I could kept me dumbfounded to the tragedy that was soon to come. Many people began to trade there shares as I was purchasing more. The saying “too much of a good thing is a bad thing” is an understatement to the horrific happenings that took place on October 29, 1929. This day I will never forget. The Stock Market hit an all time low and I was losing everything I had invested into this gamble of a lifetime. There was no way I was going to go back to low life farmer I once was. On this day October 31st of 1929 I declare my self as a dead man. Whoever is reading this journal I am sincerely sorry for the mess you have walked into, but I ask this of you, please tell my family members I am sorry for the pain and lose I have put them through.

Why would God turn his beautiful creation into a dark murky mess? Is there something I’ve done wrong? I cant wrap my brain around these questions that I tend to ask myself more often and often. This land of mine is becoming a dry, cruel, and possibly life taking darkness that comes and goes. I can no longer put food on the table for my family and our house is starting to fade away into nothing due to the piercing darkness of this so called “Dust Bowl”. My children are waking up to a blanket of dust and dirt. My wife is constantly cleaning and stressing about this new lifestyle we have to adapt to. I feel as if I have failed my family because I can no support them or keep them safe and away from these terrible dust storms. This is becoming a crisis and I have no other option then to leave the lifestyle I was thought to live and was grew up into. We have to leave the generations of happiness and hard work for a simple crowded city life. I pray that my family can forgive me as I am dragging them away from everything they know and love. I pray that the city will welcome us with arms wide open.

I am beganing to feel as if I am a vulture or some horrific scavaging beast. We are living on the streets and surviving by any food and water we can find. I never thought I would be put into these predicaments. I havent seen a smile on my mothers face is ages. I cant find a job anywhere to support my brothers and mother. There is nothing I can do to be productive besides salvaging furniture, materials, food, water or anything that could help us in these make shift houses that we taken shelter in. I help in the little gardens we have made but no matter how much we work and plant there is never enough for the people of this hooverville. This lifestyle is overwelming and very stressful for a young man like me. I am slowly becoming hopeless in these starving and cold nights. The only thing that encourages me now is the thought of seeing my brothers playing and no longer being hungry and to see the big smile my mother use to have on her face because she was so proud of us. I wont stop until I make my mother proud again.

I have never heard such a uplifting voice. The way he speaks is like we are face to face and he is concerned about my well-being. I look forward to hearing his speeches through this little box of static everyday. The times are hard and everybody’s hopes are fading away but I believe he is the man to restore everything to the beauty and happiness that once flowed through this country. Everything he says feels as if he actually cares and is determined to help this country in poverty. He is my role model and is like a father figure to me. I love how much faith he puts into my family and how after every chat the room is filled with hope. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is the greatest man to ever take office. This country will soon be back to its booming and reliable self.