Common Wealth, Common Wisdom

Bingo numbers echo as senior citizens ranging from seventy into their late eighties gather at the Norfolk Community Center to play bingo and chat. The ice has melted from the arena to reveal a gray cement ground underneath lawn chairs and makeshift bingo stations. Even though my age and inexperience with bingo sets me apart, the atmosphere radiates a comforting sense of community between the elders and volunteers involved. Here I meet Louise Hardy, a petite woman with an enchanting smile. Her charm lies in her modest reluctance to share details of her life during the Great Depression. She prefers to give me a history lesson on FDR rather than share personal experiences. Her peers share the same modesty, refreshing compared to my teenage peers who commonly reveal the most personal of details, unprovoked. After my more persistent inquiries, she reveals details about her youth during the Great Depression.

Born in 1929 in Gouverneur, New York, Louise remembers happy times during the Great Depression. Somewhat isolated from more rural and devastated economies, she lived in town close to the Hardy's department store her father owned. She remembers the marble sidewalks (a product of a local marble quarry), hopscotch, "kick the can", rolly polly, and chalk drawings. She tells me children kept themselves occupied by spending time with each other instead of electronics.

However, Louise was not completely sheltered from the depression-impoverished farming community. "Gouverneur was the home of retired farmers...Farm people would come in on Saturday and the streets would be so crowded you couldn't hardly get through!" she says with a small laugh and a smile. The socially connected Gouverneur community during the 1930s enabled Louise to have more knowledge and compassion toward farmers. Louise says, "I felt for the farmers myself...Our system [didn't] seem to work just right economically."

Despite finding faults in the American economy, Louise speaks fondly of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stating, "He was a wonderful president for all the programs he devised." She remembers, for example, that "many of the local boys [were] employed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)". "During the Depression, if you made a dollar a day that was pretty good - for ordinary labor" says Louise. I find this recollection reiterated at each bingo table I visit.

Louise remembers Saturdays in Gouverneur filled with conversation and busy streets. I see her eyes lost in the memory of her childhood again, and the almost lost concept of a sociable town. The ladies around her agree that despite the Great Depression there was "less fear" between people, more interaction, and more community involvement than today. I left Louise wondering if our current recession could be resolved with a change in values. Perhaps individuality with cooperation would result in not only a healthier economy, but also a healthier society.

Labels: Civilian Conservation Corps, farming, geofeed, Great Depression, interview, Jennifer, NCPR, Norfolk, North Country, Northern New York, society