Depression Years

I remember one time when out of desperation after demanding that he not have to be able to wait a year to be able to work and to have his family stay alive, my father caught crabs in nets and cooked them at home. Our house smelled for over a block away. He shelled the crabs, sold them and was caught and fined.

During the Depression years we were very poor. My mother was constantly sick, and my father desperately searched for work. The Salvation Army brought food and toys at Christmas time.

I can remember during the Depression years my mother and I walking at around the corner of Main and Hastings Street and seeing men on the corners jingling tin cans for pennies. My mother took me to unemployed meetings at the Orange Hall at Hastings and Gore Street where men were demanding work not welfare.