Great Depression Interview with Granny, Part 1

The following is my phone interview for a school project my junior year of high school. It's dated April 20, 1998.

Jill: What do you remember about the stock market crash?

Granny: Well, it was a shock to everyone. A lot of people killed themselves. They didn't know what to do, they were so afraid of an unstable future.

J: How old were you at the time?

G: I was born in 1914, so I would have been 15 years old. I lived on a farm in Cannon Falls, MN with my family.

J: Was your family and those in your community greatly effected by the crash?

G: We didn't have a whole lot of money as it was. Not that many people in Cannon Falls were directly6 effected. It wasn't until the banks closed that people around us lost money.

J: How many banks were there in Cannon back then?

G: Two. They cloes the day Granpa Glen and I were married; March 18, 1933. One of the banks payed back all the money, but the other only gave back some.

J: Did anyone you knew lose their farm?

G: No, I can't think of anyone, but plenty of people around the country did.

J: What happened to them: How did they survive?

G: Families helped their own.

J: Did you know anyone who got government work?

G: Yes. Glen got a government job dredging Gib Cannon River. They made it deeper and wider. Of course, they only had horses and wagon to use, so it was hard manual labor. But it was work. The men would work until they made around a hundred dollars. Then they had to leave the job so other men could work.

J: How long did it take to make that kind of money?

G: Oh, I suppose a few weeks. Glen's brother Dale, worked in the CC camps cutting lumber on government land. Men were also given the job of building the band shell by the river. It's the same one that's there today.

J: Did the dust reach as far north as Cannon Falls?

G: Oh, yes! It was terrible. There was very little rain. A lot of crops were lost. Our well became dry. We had to haul water in 2 1/2 miles from the river in town. There was a layer of dirt over everything. I can only imagine what those people in the south went through with the dust. We had to stick rags around the dorrs and windows to keep it out.