Overall people look a lot happier, more hopeful. There's still a lot to fix, but the streets are a bit cleaner and the Hoovervilles are starting to clear out. Because FDR was willing to take control of the horrible economy, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been able to escape poverty and starvation, including my family. We have a lot more to fix, but things are really looking up!
Well, everything has managed to work out for the most part. Papa has been doing well in his construction job for the past 2 year. I even got a part time job at a grocery store, and my siblings and I have started to go to school through FDR's National Youth Administration. Our family has even made enough money that we were able to move out of that awful Hooverville and into a small apartment in New York City.
Overall people look a lot happier, more hopeful. There's still a lot to fix, but the streets are a bit cleaner and the Hoovervilles are starting to clear out. Because FDR was willing to take control of the horrible economy, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been able to escape poverty and starvation, including my family. We have a lot more to fix, but things are really looking up!
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My whole family is so ecstatic! Papa was finally able to get a job through one of FDR's New Deal programs: the Works Progress Administration. The WPA has been creating jobs through public works projects, like building bridges and road and airports. Papa was contacted about working as a construction worker on a new bridge that's being built. I even know that some of our neighbors have gotten jobs to build and repair roads. FDR is really helping everyone out with his New Deal Programs. I know that soon enough our family will be off the street and enjoying the city life how we should be.
Things are really starting to look up! Roosevelt created his "brain trust," which his group of super, super smart advisers that will help him with the New Deal and his 100 day plan. The men on his trust are supposedly the smartest of their trade. Apparently, they are trying to pass a Banking Act to end all of the bank panic and crises that have been going on. They will hopefully enact even more new programs to get the jobless, homeless Americans back on their feet.
Big news! We finally got that horrible Hoover out of office, and now a new, better man has taken his place: Roosevelt.
Roosevelt is super optimistic about the future, and I can't help but be too. He says that the depression is bad enough that he thinks the federal government has the responsibility to get involved. I'm so glad that we finally have someone in power who's saying that! Hoover was too scared to put the economy in the hands of the government. Today my family and some of our neighbors gathered around a radio and listened to his speech. He said that he was starting a "new deal," and had created a "100 day plan." Basically, he plans on making a bunch of reforms and passing a bunch of acts in the first 100 days of his presidency. I think it's amazing! I'm so glad to have someone who is actually taking care of us now. Finally, my family will be able to get back into working and find an actual house to live in. I don't think I've ever been so angry. Papa has been looking for work for months, and he still hasn't been able to find anything. Yesterday I finally decided to go into the city and try to get a job for myself. Papa said that unemployment is at 25% of the population, but I figured that I should try to get a job anyway.
Well, I ended up finding a convenience store that needed cashiers, and I had thought that I would finally get a job, but when I went in to talk to the manager about a job he turned me away! He said that I was a woman and that the men, being the "bread winners," should get the first chance to find a job. I can't believe anyone would say something like that! We are all struggling to survive in these hard times, and sticking by some silly little sexist belief isn't going to help anyone. Today was my 17th birthday, and I was happier than I ever expected to be.
There is this nice young couple that lives next to us in the Hooverville. Sometimes they help us out if we are low on food, and we help them too. This morning, they came to our door and told us that they knew it was my birthday, and that they had a surprise for me. From behind their back they pulled a chocolate cake! It was incredible eating chocolate for the first time in months, and the fact that my kind neighbors would spend their own money to make me something like that was incredible. I will never forget what they did. I know that people don't really consider farming to be the most "respectable" of professions, but when I found out today that Papa had tried to sell apples on the corner for 5 cents each, I felt really ashamed. We used to be fairly respectable corn farmers, and now we were practically begging for money. I didn't say any of that, of course, I know it would make everything worse. Papa said that there were hundreds of other men that he saw selling apples too. I guess everyone is just struggling to survive in these horrible times.
A lot has been going on since I last posted. Ever since the stock market crash, things have been going downhill. Papa lost his job, so we haven't had any source of money for the last 3 months. Finally, Papa and Mama told us that we were going to have to move to New York City to find jobs. They said that it was bad all over the US, but that we might find some hope in the bigger cities. They told us that they knew about a place where some of the other struggling families would live. I had no idea what they meant at the time.
When we arrived in New York I didn't get a chance to admire how huge everything was. When Mama and Papa had said that they had found us a place to live, I didn't realize that they had meant that we would be living in shacks among other homeless people. That's right, homeless. We're living in a place called a "Hooverville." Mama and Papa said that the Hoovervilles were named after our president who hasn't done a great job with getting rid of the depression. Now, I can't claim to know much about politics, but if this horrible place is named after President Hoover, he must be a pretty awful president. I hope we aren't living here permanently. I can hardly breath while writing this. A huge dust storm just passed through our town. It completely killed all of our corn and destroyed the little shack out back. Sometimes we get dust storms, but they have never been this bad before. I swear, God has it out for us right now. We already lost all of our savings when the bank failed, and now we don't have any food. I have no idea what we are going to do.
Today was the worst Christmas ever. Mama and Papa had me and my siblings sit at the table and told us that they weren't able to afford any gifts this year. I remember it was really quiet, and than little Margaret starting bawling. Mama explained that the bank in town had failed, and all of their money that they had saved was gone. I don't think the little ones really understood, because all they were crying about was the fact that we had no presents. I was sad about that, but I also knew how horrible this was. We are basically without any money now.
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