POSITIVE VALUES
Most of the time, when talk turns to the 1929 and the 1930's - the era marked by the Great Depression - we hear about all the miseries of that time.
I have found that if I try to say anything good about those years, I am greeted with obvious signs of disbelief.
Yes, there was misery aplenty. There were shortfalls in every facet of life in those days and the stories about doing without things are not at all exaggerated., but it was also a time in which we learned lessons about many facets of living. I would not recommend it as method by which one might learns such things, but it did have some positive values.
I can remember on such event now that winter weather is with us and the ice is frozen solid on ponds. The ice froze just as firm in those days as it does today, but we were without skates, so we made our own. Here's how it was done.
We took pair of old automobile license plates which were larger then than they are today. It was necessary to cut a slot in edge of the tag. I remember punching such holes with a screw driver and hammer perhaps half an inch back from the edge of the plate. Using old belts or pieces of reins which were hanging everywhere in old sheds and barn, we laced the strap under the foo, down, then up through the slots to pull the metal up when the belt was buckled across the foot. Next we fitted the skate to the individual by having him stand on the plate and using pliers to bend the two front corners over his shoe. A tight fit was essential.
At that stage one could slide on the ice but that was not skating. The next step was to find some old, rusty iron rods – finger-sized was best , if possible, an d then to cut them to at lest two,maybe four inches longer than the plate-skate under construction For pennies, the blacksmith around the corner from our house would bend the front end of the rod up in a graceful half circle and connect the rod, now a blade, to the keel of the plate-skate usually at three of four places - front, middle and rear- with a glob of white- hot metal. He dipped them in the nearby horse watering tough and out of the cloud of steam a new skate was launched.
Of course, they were not really skate. We knew that, but they were better than nothing at all and we did many an hour on the ponds nearby using home-made ice skates.
In the same line, we used old cardboard boxes as toboggans or sleds. It was best to coat the bottom with candle wax which used up every stub of a candle in the area and some good ones, as well, I suppose. Wooden barrel staves, buckled on pretty much as we did the skates, served as our ski gear.
We have a set of place mats on our kitchen table today using art by Currier & Ives which reminds me of those skating days every time I see them ...a large frame house and down a small slope a frozen pond with kids skating around happily.
No, Great Depression Days talk need not be all negative.
A.L.M. November 27, 2002 _Thanksgiving Day [c579wds]
