Common Wealth, Common Wisdom

Next Wednesday, October 14th, Brenna and I will be heading over to the museum in Potsdam (next to the Potsdam library) to showcase our work from this summer. Four interns each worked with an elder who grew up during the Great Depression, getting tried and true advice on how to survive the recession. This event starts at 6:30 pm and is open and free to everyone; refreshments will be served. Two more outreach events this fall will follow this one.

Labels: cwcw, geofeed

A new audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour.

Labels: audio features, Brenna, Elders, geofeed, Great Depression, Ruth Garner, Travel

A new audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour.

Labels: audio features, chelsea, Elders, geofeed, Great Depression

A new audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour.

Labels: audio features, baseball, Elders, geofeed, Great Depression, Kolby

In addition to her feature piece about Ann and Roger Huntley, Jenn Sibert chose to profile local entrepreneur Maggie Wood, age 17. Jenn says: "Maggie's story and creative genius is unique and it was such a pleasure to interview her. At an early age she discovered her passion for crafting jewelry and clothes from recycled materials. She goes through great lengths to connect with her surrounding community despite living in a small town and taking online classes instead of attending the local high school." Listen as Maggie explains her sources of motivation, inspiration, and her life as a young entrepreneur.

Labels: audio features, Entrepreneurship, experience, geofeed, Jennifer, North Country

They say that behind every hard working man is an even harder working woman. Behind Roger Huntley, who just retired after four decades as an auctioneer, is the tireless and indominable Ann Huntley. The Huntleys just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In this piece, produced by Jennifer Sibert for the Common Wealth Common Wisdom project, Roger and Ann take us back to the day they met, through a lifetime of collaboration on the farm and under the auction tent.

You can see photos of Ann and Roger Huntley and and hear the rest of the stories in this series at ncpr.org/cwcw.

Labels: auction, audio features, geofeed, Jennifer, Roger Huntley

Starting our string of outreach events, the CWCW team went to the state-wide Seniorama festival in Hogansburg last week. For these outreach events, we will be visiting places around the community to present what we've done these past few weeks, as well as listen and possibly record peoples' stories.

Held at a bingo palace, we arrived to find the place full of energy. The right side of the building housed slot machines, while the left had bingo and was full of red-and-white decorated booths of all varieties- there was one for sleep apnea equipment, a stand promoting Assemblywoman Addie Russell, and another giving away cinnamon rolls. Chelsea and I stopped by the booth of two retired teachers selling coffee to raise money for scholarships, who said sales that day had been slow; they think a better selection is needed for next year.

When we talked with the man in charge, Robert Miller, he informed us that the Seniorama has been running strong for eight years. He said it's for senior issues, to give help to seniors and have vendor tables for products they may need, though many people are under the impression that the Seniorama is out to get their money, where it really just wants to help them earn it.

Regarding the economy, Mr. Miller told us that some counties, such as Lewis and Jefferson, are having a hard time and are less likely to go to the Seniorama. Though he said the crowd from St. Lawrence County is still strong, not stopped by the heat or the slow economy. The place was booming with bingo and "Crazy Catz" slots, and we had a fun time meeting everyone, even running into a few friends from our first CWCW voyage to the Norfolk Senior picnic.

And after talking to Mr. Miller and the other participants at the Seniorama, I realized that maybe the poor economy is having sort of a domino affect on people. While St. Lawrence County came out, the other nearby counties weren't really represented, presumably because of high gas prices and the like. And when people can’t attend events like Seniorama, something that wants to help participants save money, they might be missing out on some helpful ways to save money.

Labels: Brenna, geofeed, seniorama, seniors

Last week, the Common Wealth, Common Wisdom team spent a day at the St. Lawrence County Fair in Gouverneur. When we managed to pry ourselves away from the games, the animals and the maple sugar candy, we set up an informational booth and conducted interviews with some local entrepreneurs.

Labels: Entrepreneurship, geofeed, gouverneurfair

Today's economy is a point of obsession- talked about by every news station, and worried about by nearly every person in the country. But when I follow recession news, there's one big question on my mind: How are women being affected differently than men?

In today's recession, more jobs are being lost by men than women. This is because more jobs are being lost in the construction field, where the typical worker is male, and because it costs less to keep a woman on as they are payed less. To give you an idea, the median annual income for an unmarried woman is $12, 900 and $26, 850 for a man. This is part of the reason single mothers need more government assistance, such as food stamps, than single fathers.

However, while men are losing more jobs, women are still having a harder time in the recession. People are falling back on savings when they can't pay the bills with a paycheck, and women have less savings because they make less. To this day women make only 76% of what men make, and face discrimination in the workforce when applying for jobs. A decrease in salaries across the board isn't helping: Men's earnings are down .5%, and women's down 3%.

It's shocking to read these facts knowing the progress we have made-- why is it so hard to make the final leaps towards equality? Why is equal pay still a problem in today's modern society? But I think the bigger question is, in the face of statistics like these, why have women's rights become such a tired topic?

Ruth Garner tells me that when she started thinking about a career in the 1930s, a woman could be only a teacher, secretary, or nurse. And while those continue to be the most common jobs for women, they are no longer the only options. However, being allowed to apply for the same job as a man does not mean gender doesn't play a role. Look at the new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and how much focus was put on the fact that she is a woman, instead of simply her ideas.

One thing I realized when talking with Ruth is that we have made immense progress in the past seventy years. Ruth has broken the glass ceiling three times over: She opened a hairdresser's business, a funeral home, and became mayor.

Click on the audio player to hear a story about unequal pay from Ruth's life. And to hear more of Ruth's story, come to our final event on Friday at the Silas Wright House from five to eight p.m.

Labels: Brenna, cwcw, Entrepreneurship, gender, geofeed, Ruth Garner

Labels: Billcullen, chelsea, cwcw, geofeed

Labels: Brenna, Brushton, Business, Depression, Entrepreneurship, geofeed

Sitting on his patio in downtown Brushton, Mayor Don Barney shares some of his accumulated wisdom with the CWCW crew. The eighty year-old retired Agway representative shares his circumstances growing up on a farm in Malone during the Great Depression. Don says that although his family was poor, "we never went without."

Don pauses, considering what he's about to say. "I usually don't tell people this," Don says, "but I don't have a high school education." In a household of five children, Don explains, "If there was work to be done at home, you stayed home and you done it… Most of the time we made our own money. We might have gone out to nearby farms and we'd pick corn and pitch hay and we'd do anything to make a dollar." He grew up with a notion of hard work and independence as his family "raised everything on the farm."

Don's self-reliance has taken the place of education and I begin to understand how, in combination with education, that character trait can lead to great economic prospects. "I don't think in life I really could've done any better if I had a high school education or college. But I had the experience and the good reputation to be able to get one of the best jobs."

It was inspiring to learn that Don served on various school and town community boards despite his lack of formal education. He reminds us that education "opens doors but doesn't solve all the problems." Many youth today are choosing education as a safe-haven from the reality of living independent, but having a college degree doesn't automatically ensure success. Don Barney's emphasis on education in combination with will power is powerful advice for young people today. The current economy of may appear bleak but Don says with a grin, " I think you gotta have that positive attitude, that’s all. Yeah, and a little bit of luck of course."

Labels: Brushton, Business, Entrepreneurship, geofeed, Jennifer, positive

A new audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour.

Labels: audio features, geofeed

The first audio feature from the project aired this morning on NCPR's morning news program The Eight O'Clock Hour. The piece featured CWCW elder Roger Huntley, presiding over his last public auction.

Labels: audio features, Brenna, chelsea, geofeed, Jennifer, Roger Huntley

Labels: auction, geofeed, Hanawa Falls, NCPR, photo, photo essay, Roger Huntley

Labels: Canton, Elders, experience, geofeed, Great Depression, history, internship, interview, Jennifer, journey, Ruth Garner

Labels: geofeed, interview, NCPR, Norfolk, North Country

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

Doreen Lorock was born in 1934 near Governeur. During the Great Depression she remembers going to her grandparents house and finding nothing to play with. She and her friends had to make up their own games. She loved being outside and she went swimming a lot, and loved to pick flowers and berries. As a teenager, she worked at a restaurant baking many pies every Sunday.

At age sixteen, Doreen graduated high school. She got accepted to Cornell University and SUNY Plattsburgh, but her family didn't have enough money to send her there. She got married at age eighteen and started having children. Doreen ended up not going to college until decades later. She graduated when she was 40 years old at the same time as her oldest son.

Labels: College, geofeed, Governeur, Great Depression, Kolby, Teenager

Gordon sat behind a desk surrounded by coolers, selling soda to the other seniors. He was extremely tan, as if he'd he'd spent a lot of time outdoors during his life. He looked down at the table, kind of drawn into himself; when I asked him to share his life story, he responded with a less-than-enthusiastic, "Sure, I guess." Gordon told me about his life modestly, as if he didn't feel what he was saying had much importance. But once he started talking, he kept talking. I never had to prod him with questions.

Born in Lowville in 1938, Gordon didn't have much money growing up, but felt a rich sense of community. He never felt terribly impoverished, as neighbors always took care of one another; they had what they needed. One Christmas his father gave him a ring-toss game crafted from the rubbers of canning jars. Gordon told me it's still one of his most memorable Christmas presents. Gordon worked odd jobs for several years and then raised the union fee necessary to get a job at Alcoa, an aluminum company in Massena. He worked there most of his life before retiring in 2000.

When he retired, Gordon and his wife started traveling. He told me about the places he visited: Of the beautiful string band he'd heard at a church in Hawaii; of the pickpocket in Spain whose attempt to steal Gordon's wallet left him with merely a pack of tissues; of the "candy-cane shaped roads" along the coast of California.

His wife had been sick for a long time with a heart condition, but she never wanted her life to slow down. Finally, last year, she became too sick to travel. Her kidneys failed and Gordon found himself going back and forth between the hospital. She passed away last year. "She lived for life," his soda-selling partner, Shirley, said. Hearing Gordon talk about her, knowing what she meant to him, I found myself wanting to know her, wishing I could have experienced this person who could spark such intense feeling in the man beside me.

Labels: Brenna, Community, geofeed, Lowville, Memories, Neighbors, North Country, Observation, Travel

Zelda Thomas sat looking expectantly at me, her large glasses magnifying the wrinkles on her face. I thanked her for letting me talk to her as I squeezed a grey, rusted folding chair onto a section of hard concrete floor between the aging card table and another group of elders whose canes stuck out dangerously into aisles.
Zelda Thomas was born in 1914 and raised by her grandparents on their farm. She became a teacher at a one-room schoolhouse in Russell. "We made soup at school," she remembered. Students would have potatoes for lunch and then bring soup home for their families. For Zelda, the Depression happened so slowly she hardly noticed it. Living on a farm, her family was more self-sufficient than others who lived in town. "We had cows, pigs, chickens. That's what we must have eaten" she said.
Zelda is 95 years old and doesn't hear so well. Each time I asked her a question, she would lean in closer to me with her eyes closed, then lean back and open them as she answered. But not hearing well also has its advantages. Zelda's friends always want her to drive them around, because she never gets distracted by their talking.

Labels: chelsea, Depression, geofeed, Norfolk, Observation, Picnic, Russell