U.S. History 1930's-1950's

My mother loved art. She always used to tell me that I should enjoy the art of life and the art around me. She loved Pablo Picasso. I remember we bought her a copy of his famous painting “Guernica” for her birthday. We bought it at a discount store for $3. She was so proud of my siblings and I for saving up the money. It was mostly my brothers and sister because I was only 3 at the time. When she died, I told my siblings that I wanted to keep the painting. Maybe it was because I had learned to appreciate art. My mother also loved to read. Her favorite author of the time was Ruth McKenney, her most famous book was My Sister Eileen. It was later turned into a Broadway play it was so popular.
My oldest brother, John, was 13 when I was born. He loved music. When I was 3, and he was 16, I remember him listening to the radio. Blues music was popular then. He would go to some of the “juke joints” where he and his friends would hang around and listen to the juke box. His favorite singer was Duke Ellington. My mother told me that I would try to dance to the music when I heard it. She loved to see her children have a good time.
My other older brother, Thomas, who was 10 when I was born, loved comic books. Superman was very popular then, and it was his favorite book. We didn’t have enough money to spend on these things. My brother had a friend who parents made a lot of money, and they would buy him comic books. When he was done reading them, he would give tem to my brother. My brother loved those comic books, and he still has them to this day.
My third older brother, George who was 7 when I was born, wanted to be just like my other brother. He also loved comic books, but liked Tarzan, who was also very popular. They used to share their comic books. I always noticed when I got older that Thomas and George always wanted to be like John, my oldest brother.
My older sister, Mary, was 4 when I was born. I remember when I was four and she was 7, she wanted to be a ballerina. Ballet was becoming popular in the United States. She always told my older brothers that she would be a ballerina and dance on a big stage in New York City. They made fun of her. I always believed in her. I think that is something that I learned from my mother, she believed that anyone could do anything as long as they set their mind to it.
My father also loved to watch sports. Baseball was his favorite sport. He would listen to the games on the radio, because we didn’t have a television. Sometimes, our whole family would go to our neighbor’s house and watch the games. We all cheered for Lou Gehrig, our favorite baseball player. He played 2,1301 games consecutively. He played for the New York Yankees. Gehrig played from the late 1920’s until the early 1930’s. In 1932, he became the first All American Leaguer to hit four home runs in a game. He was one of the strongest baseball players I have ever seen, for that he was nicknamed “Iron Horse”.   Our neighbors were our best friends. My oldest brother John, was friend with their oldest son. Thomas and George were friends with their other son. My sister and I became friends with Ruth. Ruth was the same age as me. She was actually only a week older than me. We became very close friends as time went on.
I can remember quite vividly the way my mother used to dress. She would wear a very simple and plain dress. The dresses has zippers, which were a new thing during this time. My sister Mary and I would dress the same way. My mother used to love seeing us get dressed up, especially for Easter. We would each wear a pretty dress with a big hat. I wasn’t a big fan of the hats.
Towards the end of the 30’s there was an exciting new invention. It was the television. It made it’s public debut at the World’s fair in Chicago in 1939. Many people were shocked. It was one of the most interesting things people had ever seen. They couldn’t believed that a picture coming from somewhere else could be on the television.
As the 1940’s began, I was four. I don’t really remember too much, but I remember some of the things that my mother told me when I was about 5 or 6. I remember the war beginning. Everyone was worried. The US and Britain teamed up to be a stronger force on all the other countries. Our family invested in a radio in 1941. I would listen to the news with my mother. I always heard stuff about the war, but didn’t understand any of it because I was only 5. One day I was at Ruth’s house and when I came home, my mother looked very upset. I asked her what was wrong. I can remember this day like it was yesterday. She began to cry. I didn’t know what to do. So I sat on the couch with her. When my father came home from work, they had a long talk. I remember sitting in the kitchen with my brothers and sister listening to my parents to see if we would hear what they were talking about. It was late when they were done talking, they told us it was time for bed and that we would talk in the morning. I didn’t sleep for a second that night. Even though I was only 5, I was very worried. When we woke up in the morning, my mother, father, and my oldest brother, John, were all sitting in the kitchen. Finally, they were going to tell us what was going on. What I was about to hear, was probably the worst news I have ever received, yet the most confusing because I was only 5 years old. My brother was going to fight in the war. None of us knew what to say. Where we supposed to congratulate him or be worried? I was worried. He was to leave in 2 months. I didn’t know what to think. I was scared for my brother. I was scared for myself, but I was I being selfish, I didn’t know, I was only 5. I would remember this day for the rest of my life.
I think we had the nicest lawn in the neighborhood. My dad loved to take care of our yard. My mom planted flowers, and my dad mowed the lawn. We had a very cute house with a neat yard. Every time I saw a house like ours it reminded me of home. My sister and I liked to pick the flowers, and give them to our mother. I could tell that she was upset with us for picking her flowers, but she always managed to put a smile on her face an give us a big hug!
In July of 1943, my brother left for the army. I remember him leaving, and thinking what if this is the last time I see him? He was only 17, and I was 6. I remember praying every night before I went to bed that he would be okay. I was happy that he could be there for my 6th birthday, but I was about to start first grade in September, and he wouldn’t be there to see his baby sister start school. I was excited that I was going to school. Ruth, who was my best friend, and I would both be going to the same school. So at least I would already have one friend.
I saw a picture in the news paper that I thought was very interesting. It was a picture of these very tall buildings in New York City. They were all glass. My mother said that there will be a lot of them in that city when I’m older. She was right.
The 1940’s were a decade for technology and music. My brothers Thomas and George listened to Big Band music. Their favorite singers were Duke Ellington and Frank Sinatra. Our whole family went to the movie theater to see the movie Casablanca. It was good because we did something as a family, and it helped us take our minds off of John. I still prayed for him every night. I had started school, and I was enjoying it.
It was April 1945, and President Roosevelt had died. I remember hearing it on the news that night. I was nine. I still remember the exact voice on the television that said, “president Roosevelt has passed away”. After he died, Truman took over. Less than a month later, The US has achieved victory over Europe in the war. I remember wondering if my brother, John, had helped.
My younger brother, Thomas, was graduating from high school, and had to make a decision on whether or not he wanted to go to college. I remember that this was a big deal because not many kids went to college. My father had a good job now, and he was able to afford, for Thomas, to go to college. Thomas decided that he would just get a job and work, he didn’t want to go to college. He told me that he wanted our father to save his money so he could see his two little sisters go to college some day. I never felt so proud of my brother.
My sister, Mary, loved to read. I remember for her 14th birthday, my parents bought her the book Johnny Tremain. It was written by Esther Forbes. Mary must have read this book 10 times. I always told her that she should be a teacher, she agreed with me.
Today I read in the paper that the first computer was made. They will be using it in the government. It was called ENIAC. It was huge compared to the computers that we have now. It weighed 30 tons and stood 2-stories high! My brother George, who was then 16, thought this was the greatest thing. He liked it better than the television. In 1947, when I was 11, there was a new television show. It was called The Howdy Doody Show. I loved to watch this with my sister. We would watch it when we came home from school.
The economy was doing well. I didn’t understand much about it, but it wasn’t as nearly as bad as my mother said it was during the Depression. Now that I look back, it was rapidly improving. People were out and about. Almost 17 million household had televisions2. Most families had extra money that they could spend. My family liked to go to the movies. Even thought the television was very popular, we still went to see a movie every once in a while. They came out with 3-D movies. My sister and I thought they were so neat. My mother insisted that they were just a way to make money so we saw one and that was it.
There were dances at the school that my brother and sister went to. I wanted to go, but I was still too young. They did fun dances. The most popular dance was the Jitterbug. My sister and I used to dance in our kitchen to the radio. My mother would just laugh at us, sometimes she would join.
I remember one night my mother told me she had a special dinner for us. It was a frozen dinner. I hated them. They were nothing compared to what my mother could cook. Even my father could cook better than that! They had no taste, and the food seemed fake to me. We never had them again.
School was going very well. Both my brothers had graduated from high school. George had just graduated and he decided not to g to college. He got a job just like Thomas did. Mary was 16 and she was in 10th grade. She had decided that she wanted to go to college to become a teacher. I had always known that she would because she always like to teach me things when I was younger. She taught me how to read before I even went to first grade. I was proud of her for wanting to do that. I was going to be in 7th grade after that summer. I was excited to go back to school. I liked school.
That summer I was about to get the biggest surprise of my life. One day, Ruth, who was my best friend still, were walking down our street. We saw a nice car drive by with a couple people inside but we couldn’t tell who. We didn’t recognize the car, which was strange because we knew most of the people on our street. We thought nothing of it. We went back to Ruth’s house and watched TV. I went home around 4 o’clock. That’s when we were going to have dinner. As I was walking home I just had this strange feeling about something, but I wasn’t sure what it was. When I walked into the house everybody looked at me. I knew this look. It wasn’t the look like something bad had happened, but it was more of the “what is she going to think?” look. My mother had told me someone was in the kitchen waiting for me. At this point I was very confused. As I walked into the kitchen, I never felt to relived and happy at the same time. It was my brother John. He was back from the war! I was so happy to see him. I will never forget that day for as long as I live.
My brother Thomas who was then 22 was about to get married. He was so happy, as a matter of a fact, I had never seen him happier before. His fiancée’s name is Elizabeth. She would soon finish college and become a teacher. Thomas had said after they got married, they were going to move to a different town. I was sad to see him go, but they didn’t’ live that far away and he said I could go and visit him whenever I wanted to.
So, in December 1948, my brother Thomas got married. The wedding was small but nice. I had a lot of fun there. We got to dance all night. That was exciting to me. At the wedding, my oldest brother John told us that he was going to be getting married soon as well. I happy for my two brothers. They were both so happy. I was grateful for John making it in the army. His fiancée reminded me of Thomas’ wife. They were both beautiful.
My sister had gotten her first job at a local store. She would help around the store with whatever they needed. She didn’t work that often, but when she did she made 43¢ an hour. That was minimum wage for that time. I also remember that sometimes we would volunteer at scrap drives. People would bring in tin, steel, paper, rubber, etc. for money.
I was now in 7th grade, and I enjoyed it very much. I wanted to be a teacher just like my sister. I was happy to be in school. I couldn’t say the same for my sister. Even thought she wanted to be a teacher, she didn’t like the fact that she had to go to school everyday. Ruth and I were closer than ever. She was my best friend, we did everything together. We had known each other since we were born! We had other friends too that we would go out with, but none of them compared the way she and I did. We used to sleep over each others houses. We had so much fun together, I was appreciative that I had a friend like her.
I will never forget June 22nd, 1949. School had been out for almost a week. Ruth and I would love to spend pretty much every day of the summer together. I remember I was with another friend that day, and we went to see a movie at the theater in town. We left the theater around 3:30 in the afternoon because we both had to be home for dinner. Since I hadn’t seen Ruth that day, I was going to ask my mother if Ruth could have dinner with us. When I got into the house my mother, father, George, and Mary were sitting in the kitchen. This time I knew something was terribly wrong. My mother said to me, “Annie , Ruth got hit by a car.” The tone of her voice told me that it was not going to be okay, but I asked for reassurance. “Mom, is she going to be okay, tell me she’ll be okay!” My mother replied with, “Ruth died.” I didn’t know what to say or feel. I really don’t remember anything after that. All I remember is that I was angry. Angry at myself for not being with her there. What if I was, would she have gotten hit? Maybe I would have been able to tell her there was a car coming and to be careful, but no, I wasn’t. She was like my sister. What was I going to do with out her. I still wonder to this day how I managed to get by without her the rest of my childhood.
The day of her funeral was the worst day anyone could have ever imagined. I didn’t speak, not a word, to anyone. After that, I didn’t go to school for a while. I just sat in my room. My sister tried to make me feel better by talking, but I just don’t think she knew how horrible it felt to lose your best friend. After a while, I began to adjust more and more. I still think about her though, everyday.   Things were about to change, the fifties were coming.
The fifties were a time of big changes and new ideas. I remember one of the most important issues was segregation. I used to read about it in the paper. I really didn’t understand why the blacks got separated, but I knew they did. They had separate schools, busses, water fountains, bathrooms, and so much more. He biggest deal was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama. Because she was black, she was supposed to give up her seat to a white person, but she refused. She was arrested.
Also, at the beginning of the 50’s, the Cold War with Russia was starting, as well as the Korean War. I remember that we helped out North Korea while the Communists aided South Korea. This war would last three years.
         I also remember at the beginning of the 50’s, the economy wasn’t as good as it had been in the past few years. Inflation was a major issue that was much talked about. I remember seeing a new clip about the economy and if it would return to normal. The reason why the economy was slipping was because of price inflation at the beginning of the Korean War. I remember my father saying that Eisenhower cared too much about unemployment rather than price inflation.
After World War II, The US and Russia emerged as superpowers. The US and Russia would compete throughout the fifties and early sixties in the space race. I remember seeing on the new that Russia had released Sputnik, which was the first space satellite.
Music during the fifties had changes dramatically. Rock N’ Roll was the new type of music. I loved Rock N’ Roll, but my parents hated it. My sister and I would listen to it in the bedroom that we shared. My parents bought me a transistor radio for my birthday. I loved that radio, and I listened to it until I went to college. My favorite singer, and pretty much everyone else’s was Elvis Presley, “The King of Rock N’ Roll”
In 1952, when I was 16, there was a new disease outbreak. This disease was called polio, and it had very crippling effects. There were almost 500,000 cases that year. It wasn’t thought to be contagious, but health official thought it was in the air and anyone could get it. It attacked mainly smaller children. A few years later Dr. Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio.
I remember one night in 1954, we went to a drive-in movie. The whole family went, even my two older brothers and their wives. It was an interesting new concept. I think it’s too bad that those types of theaters have been replaced by today’s modern type theaters.
In 1955, my family took a trip to new York City to go to the art museum. I remember seeing one of Jackson Pollack’s paintings. A new style of art was coming about. It was called abstract expressionism. The paintings didn’t have to make sense and the artists could paint what they felt. I liked this new type of art. “Painting is a state…self-discovery. Every good artist paints what he is.”3
Rosa Parks became a very famous lady. I remember the new headlines in 1955. “BLACK WOMAN REFUSES TO GIVE UP SEAT TO WHITE PERSON ON CITY BUS”. The country was shocked. Rosa Parks was arrested because this was totally unacceptable. She was supposed to give her seat up, no matter what. She eventually changed the way blacks were treated.
When I was 18, and almost ready to graduate high school I had to make a decision on what I wanted to do. My sister had already graduated and was going to college to become an English teacher. I still wasn’t to sure on what I wanted to do. I was leaning toward being a teacher as well.
During the last few months of my senior year, an indoor roller skating building was built. So a bunch of us went over there to go roller skating. We had so much fun. I never really knew how to roller skate before that, and I still didn’t after that.
After I graduated from high school I went to college to become a teacher, just as my sister did. I was really excited about going to college. I got a part-time job to help pay for college. My parents paid for most of school, but I helped as well.   I remember being in class one day and the professor telling us that The Us had just launched it’s first satellite successfully into outer space.
Right before I graduated from college, two new sates were added to our country. They were Alaska and Hawaii. I remember thinking how strange it was because they didn’t touch the rest of the states. Alaska was way up on the North Western part of Canada, and Hawaii was out the Pacific Ocean.
I graduated from college in 1958. I got a job as a math teacher at a school in New York. I really enjoyed teaching there and helping the students. I am 69 years old, and retired now. In my free time I love to read and take vacations to my family’s cottage in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I also have enjoyed writing this journal to commemorate the 20 most important years of my life.
I am hoping that this journal will help me to remember the most important times of my life. I enjoyed writing this journal because it helped me remember more of my childhood and what it was like then. Times are so very different now than they were before. I thought that technology was changing then, look at what we have now! I would have never imagined that the world could change so much.
Works Cited
Appleby, Joyce, Alan Brinkley, Albert S. Broussard, James M. McPherson, Donald A. Ritchie, The National Geographic Society. The American Republic. Columbus, OH: Glencoe/McGraw Hill. 2003.
Bondi, Victor. American Decades 1930-1939. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1995.