Museum seeks Depression stories

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, March 21, 2004

MONROE — Many homes have popped up in the western part of this growing town, but Helen Hartzell, 87, can visualize instead a huge lettuce farm spread over acres and acres.

That’s where Hartzell and her family used to work for 10 cents an hour, 10 hours a day, seven days a week during the Great Depression, which started in 1929 and continued through the 1930s.

Hartzell said she didn’t complain, knowing just to have a job was fortunate in those days. She remembers how much she enjoyed her mother’s milk gravy and boiled potatoes. They were tasty, nourishing and inexpensive.

Back then, people didn’t realize how tough times were, Hartzell said. "We had a good time," she added.

Hartzell shared her experience at a panel discussion last week organized by the Monroe Historical Society, which started the nonprofit group’s Great Depression Project.

The group is trying to gather stories and photos of those who lived through the Depression and now live in Monroe, said Beth Stucker, the group’s president. All the stories will be put together in notebooks and kept at the Monroe Historical Society Museum on E. Main Street.

The town’s old-timers come to the museum and chat about their experience during the era, Stucker said, and she thought recording those stories in writing would be interesting and educational for future generations.

"Their memories are priceless, and we want to capture as many of their stories as possible," she said.

Merv Boyes, 77, who has lived in Monroe all his life, said he was 4 when the Depression started. He never went hungry because Monroe was a farming community abundant with food.

"I was very lucky here," he said. "In the cities, it was different."

Boyes said he always worked hard to earn money. He mowed lawns and cut firewood for widows in town, and picked and sold berries.

The Depression taught people of his generation the value of money and a work ethic, Boyes said. But it also made them too cautious about money.

"We were too conservative. That’s a bad one," he said, adding he could’ve bought property in the 1950s or ’60s.

People needed to be fiscally conservative, said Fred Rosenzweig, 85, who grew up in town during the Depression.

Back then, the government didn’t provide welfare or Social Security, he said.

But Monroe was so small that everyone in town knew and helped each other.

"From my standpoint, it was a good place to grow up," he said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.