The Great Depression

We flip on a switch and instantaneously we have light. We turn on the faucet and we get hot, clean water to freely flow. We come home after school and have a refrigerator full of food and the cabinets full of snacks. These are only a few things that we take for granted daily. The 1920's was a time of great personal wealth. The rich became richer and the poor became poorer. Then late into the 1920's tragedy occurred. The stock market, in which many families had invested much money, crashed. It was recorded that a sum of up to forty billion dollars was lost on what was called "Black Tuesday". This sent the United States into an extreme amount of national debt that would eminently lead to a very difficult and treacherous time of poverty. Following "Black Tuesday", the Great Depression began. This was a time of suffer, hard-comings, poverty, sacrifice, and conservation. The people of the 1930's would be the first to experience the slow incline of such a steep downfall.

Today, nearly the whole world relies indispensably on electricity. We come home and flip the light switch and just expect there to be light as if it were as attainable as air. If it is cold outside and we have just gotten home, we immediately turn on the heat as naturally as breathing. We wake up early and take a hot shower so you can start your day off right. We get home and at dinner gorge ourselves with Ð'Ñ* of the food that we have on our plates and put the scraps in the trashcan because we are not hungry anymore. All great luxuries that once were not as easily attained. During the Great Depression, many families could not afford electricity, hot water, heat, or food. Families would light their houses by candlelight during the night hours and simply let the light in during the day. For hot water, many families had to boil water on the gas stove. But for the unfortunate ones without gas heat, this was nearly impossible to have. During the winter, could you imagine having to send your children to a family member's house because you were afraid their immune systems could not handle the cold? Stealing firewood because you do not have enough money to buy any. In the movie "Cinderella Man", a former professional boxer by the name of James J. Braddock made a promise that he would never send his children away. His wife, unknowing of this promise, ends up sending their children away because she was afraid they would become fatally