29
31
Lifestyle
in the
1930’s
24
32
35
Introduction
33
21
Imagine what it would be like to have a family full
of brothers and sisters. Babies wrapped in
blankets, no clothes underneath, their families
couldn't afford them. Imagine all your other
siblings in ragged hand-me-downs, and old scraps
you found on the street. You're all so depressed,
because Dad lost his job. You have to wait in line,
all of you, every morning, really early, babies are
still asleep, all for a microscopic crumb or crust of
bread. This was the 1930's: The Great Depression
was bearing down on all; the Hindenburg air ship
burned; Charles Lindbergh's baby was kidnapped
and later found dead. Follow us as we give you a
taste to life in the 1930’s. Imagine, just imagine.
http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/decade/
1930.htm
The 1930's was a time of depression,
the Great Depression. The Great
Depression lasted from the late 1920's
all through the 30's. During the great
depression it was hard for people to
find work or to even find food to feed
their family. It was a very hard time to
live in. Because many people could not
afford to live in their homes they
became hobos. (This is only one reason
why so many people became hobos in
the 1930’s.)
Daily life in the thirties was hard and stressful.
What if you came home and your wife yelled at
you because you had no job or your husband
threw a fit because there was no bread? This
was how most people were in the thirties,
miserable. The lines for bread were long and
they lasted long too. The jobs were very hard to
get especially in 1933. Imagine if you had to live
in the thirties.
http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/decad
e/1930.htm
34
Schools
23
How the Great Depression
Effected Schools
The Great Depression decreased the number of
students who attended school. The lack of jobs
persuaded some children to not quit and stay in school,
but nearly half of the nation’s children did not attend
school in the early 1930’s. Many of these children
stayed home because their schools were forced to close
for the lack of funding. Other families were more
focused on putting food on the table rather than
attending school. Most of the young people were forced
out of school to find jobs. Finding work wasn’t easy in
the early 1930’s, three quarters of the teens looking for
a job couldn’t find one.
Jobs
The job line
during the
great
depression
22
It is estimated that 25-50 percent of the workforce
lost their jobs during the years of the Depression.
Also, police usually made hobos leave cities where
there weren’t even enough jobs available for those
who lived there. There were signs posted in
certain areas, such as city borders, which stated,
“Jobless Men Keep Going—We Can’t Take Care
of our Own.”
8
Entertainment
During the 1930’s there were many choices for
entertainment for children. One example is Snow white
first came out in 1937. Also most children liked to listen
to the radio with “Little Orphan Annie.” This radio
show was about a child with a wild imagination who,
along with her pet dog, tried to solve mysteries. Other
examples of movie entertainment were movies such as:
Gone With the Wind, The Wizard Of Oz and of course
everyone’s favourite sweetheart, Shirley Temple, who
began her film career in 1932.
19
20
Some Events in the 1930’s
• “Star Spangled Banner
became the American
National Anthem
• Scientists began
experimenting with the
idea of transmitting
images over long
distances.
• The famous American
women pilot, Amelia
Earhart, disappeared on
a flight around the world
in July 1938.
• Pluto was discovered.
• First clinical use of
Penicillin.
• Insulin was used to
control diabetes (1937)
• The German
Hindenburg air ship
burned to the ground in
less than two minutes by
a spark the size of an
ant, killing 33 people and
injuring 12.
1
2
30
Hobos
5
6
Introduction to Hobos
No one is certain on when hobos first
appeared on the American railroading
scene. With the end of the American Civil
War in the mid 19th Century, many
soldiers looking to return home took to
hopping frieght trains.
11
13
12
The population of hobos greatly increased during The Great Depression
which happened in the 1930’s. With no work and no prospects at home,
many decided to travel by jumping the freight trains which was very
dangerous. Life as a hobo was always a dangerous one. In addition to
problems of being poor, far from home, and the hostile attitude of many
train crews, the railroads employed their own security staff which they
called “Bulls” who had a reputation for being rough with trespassers. In
some cases the “Bulls” would even throw anyone who hopped the train of
the train in most cases injuring them or killing them. Jumping trains was
also a very dangerous thing to do because one could fall gettting caught
under the train, lose a foot from falling under the wheels, get trapped
between cars and even freeze to death. When the freezer cars were
loaded to the factories, any hobo inside was likely to be killed. Tunnels
were also another threat to rail riders, some hobos would suffocate when
the train traveled through tunnels causing it to fill with smoke. The
Hobos could coughed up the smoke for years afterwards. Many people
heard about work hundreds of miles away and the only way they could
get there was by hoping the freight trains.
Each year, thousands of
hobos were killed or
injured while hopping
moving trains. They
often went for days
without eating and were
prone to catching
diseases. According to :
http://www.livinghistoryf
arm.org/farminginthe30s
/water_07.html
More than two million
men and perhaps 8,000
women became hobos.
At least 6,500 hobos
were killed in one year
either in accidents or by
railroad “bulls”.
15
Reasons For
Becoming Hobos
3
4
A lot of teens left their homes for adventure, to escape, or they
were searching for work, food and a better life for they were
penniless, homeless hobos who road trains illegally and went all
over the nation. What most of these teens found was far from a
better situation. The Great Depression caused a lot of these
wandering hobos to face countless dangers, struggles, and sorrows
and they often ended up isolated and alone in the country with an
unending desire to get away from the rails and this life.
Not all teens had the freedom to choose to leave their families
and wander alone in the world. They didn’t want to. In 1932,
nearly one-quarter of American workers were jobless because at
that time the nation did not have unemployment insurance, so
most of the people had no way to support themselves or their
families. This made many children starve because their parents
could no longer afford to feed them. Often what the parents did to
let their children have a better chance of survival is they would
break their families apart. A sixteen year old African American
boy by the name of Clarence Lee had this tragedy happen to his
family.
“I wanted to stay home and fight that poverty with the family,” quotes Lee,
“but my father told me I had to leave…he meant I had to go…I didn’t have
it in my mind to leave until he told me, ‘Go fend for yourself. I cannot
afford to have you around any longer.’”
Treatment of Hobos
7
Hobos and tramps hitching a ride on freight trains
At the height of the Depression, nearly 250,000 teens
were roaming the nation, homeless, penniless, and
lawless. The struggles they faced were severe. Hunger,
poverty, danger, discrimination, and even violence were
part of a hobo’s daily life. Especially because (to
encourage teens to return home) authorities were often a
lot harder on teenagers. In the relief shelters teens often
got a lot less food than the adults there. They were also
paid less than adults who did the same work as them. (If
they could get work.) If you thinks this is harsh just
think of how much worse people treated all African
American hobos. If was very risky for African American
hobos to travel through southern states because in the
South they were a lot more aggressive and hostile
towards them.
9
“If it was white kids, they fared
better. If it was black ones, you
did not,” Clarence Lee, an
African American hobo states.
“Some [landowners] would turn
you down and some of them
didn't want you on their premises
to go ask for nothin'. But a white
one [teenage hobo] was treated
much better. They might let them
stay in a house with them, but me,
I could sleep in a barn with the
mules and hay… My worst fears
was bein' shot by some farmer
who didn't want you around.”
Hobos Jungles
The places all hobos considered safe still had
violence and hostility. Hobo camps, also called
“jungles,” were created all across the nation
and hobos would gather together for some rest
before finding another train to travel on.
Near railroad yards, hobos would gather in
“hobo Jungles”, where they boiled coffee in the
shadow of the water tank and cooked up
"mulligan" stews. Sometimes they stole chicken
and other foods and were put in jail.
Violence Toward Hobos
10
One hobo, by the name
of Hobo Ben Fowler,
wrote, “These three
fellas started working a
con game so I told them
to leave us alone. One of
them jumped up and
gouged me with a big,
long pocket knife and
then they took off. If the
wound in my chest had
been a quarter of an inch
deeper I would have died
right there.”
28
25
26
Train Accidents
14
27
Hostility and violence weren’t the only things
teen hobos had to deal with; there were also
dangers on the rails they rode. Railroad
detectives called “bulls” carried rifles and
patrolled the railroads and trains. If these
people saw hobos trying to catch a ride they
would throw the hobos off the rails or imprison
them. A sixteen year old boy, named Paul
Booker, was shot by one of these guards. Also,
many hobos were killed while trying to jump
onto moving trains for one bad move could pull
them under the wheels. Other hobos, when on
the trains, sometimes fell between boxcars or
couldn’t hold on.
“Jim was also blond, my age and size,” a seventeen year
old orphaned hobo wrote. “Everyone believed we were
brothers. We thought a lot alike and hit it off very good.
We teamed up and decided to make our fortune
together. All went well with us, until one night when Jim
and I were riding on the ladders between two boxcars. It
was so cold my hands nearly froze. I slipped my arm
over a rung of the ladder and put my hand in my jacket
pocket. Being back to back, I couldn't see Jim. All of a
sudden the train gave a jerk, as it took up slack in the
draw bars. I heard Jim let out a muffled moan, as he
fell. I whirled round and made a grab for him. He had
on a knit cap. I got the cap and a handful of blond hair.
Jim was gone. Disappeared under the wheels. No way
could Jim survive. I got so sick I'd to climb up and lie on
the catwalk. From then on, I was a loner. I never teamed
up with anyone, but always traveled alone.”
Hobo Communication
Hobos communicated with each other by leaving markings on
fences and gateposts and on the ground or street. A simple
drawing was enough to tell a hobo about the inhabitants of a
house and the type of hospitality he could expect there. Also hobos
had different words they used for things. Some examples of this
are:
*bindle stiff --hobo who carries his belongings in a rolled-up
bundle
*catch out --to hop an outbound train
*reefer --refrigerator car
*gaycat --novice hobo
*dingbat --experienced hobo
*riding the rods --lying in the undercarriage of a boxcar near the
wheels
*mulligan stew --a stew made out of anything that was edible
17
Hobo Symbols
18
16
The Great Depression
The stock market crashed, banks and businesses
failed, factories shut down, life savings diminished,
once thriving farmland shriveled into wasteland,
schools shut their doors to students, jobs became
alarmingly scarce, and thousands of people
plummeted into poverty. The great depression was
not a good time in history, but it did end the late
1930s or the early 1940s thanks to WWII. When
world war two started they needed soldiers, so many
people when into the military. Also, those who didn’t
become soldiers made the weapons therefore getting
jobs. After this, the depression and started its repair.
Sources of Information
http://www.icademyglobe.org/article.php?id=687
http://www.angelfire.com/retro/lisawebworld/30slif
estyle.html#trends
http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/
water_07.html
http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm
http://www.kyrene.org/schools/brisas/sunda/decade
/1930.htm
Sources of Pictures
1. http://ingles360.blogspot.com/2011/06/usa-flag-day.html
2. http://afflictor.com/2010/08/25/great-photography-hoboes-from-backin-the-day/
3, 4, 5.
http://www.monh.org/Exhibitions/CurrentExhibitions/TeenageHoboes
intheGreatDepression/RailroadsDuringtheDepressionEra.aspx
6. http://www.infobarrel.com/The_American_Hobo#axzz1aycwOuzO
7.
http://edu.glogster.com/glog.php?glog_id=19611218&scale=54&ispro
file=true
8, 9, 10. http://www.icademyglobe.org/article.php?id=687
11, 12, 13.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/railstales/
More Sources of Pictures
14.
http://www.angelfire.com/retro/lisawebworld/30slifestyle.html#trends
15. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_07.html
16, 17, 18. http://www.worldpath.net/~minstrel/hobosign.htm
19. http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Snow_White_(character)
20. http://www.makeuptalk.com/t/119998/dare-to-be-wizard-of-ozaugust-15-august-29-2011
21. http://www.diningchicago.com/blog/2011/04/04/revisiting-the-greatdepression/
22. http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/in-withrecession-out-with-depression/
23. http://206soph.wikispaces.com/1930's+South
24. http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/history/served_society_80years.shtml
Final Sources of Pictures
25, 26, 27, 28. http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/TheRoad/holding.html
29.
http://www.illinoisancestors.org/fulton/Schools/bernadotte_
school.html
30. http://3.bp.blogspot.com/N9x10OPeXHs/TdUNJn1M7BI/AAAAAAAAWx4/P8fQ_OBV8ds/s
1600/Shanty-Town.jpg
31. http://www.fargo-history.com/np-avenue/np-ave-1930s.jpg
32. http://faculty.polytechnic.org/gfeldmeth/010013a.html
33.http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/blm/co/10/chap9.ht
m
34. http://www.surreyhistory.ca/schoolsto1950.html