Jobless in the 1930's

This is Cyrus' Journal response to the 9/20 Orienteering / History of CVNP trip.

It's the summer of 1933, I've been unemployed for the last three years and penniless the entire time. All my money was in the bank, and when the stock market crashed in October of '29, I lost everything. All I had was my ledger that said, "Jay Fitzgerald and the two-thousand some dollars that I had saved up". I still carry that piece of paper around with me. It's worthless now, but it gives me some hope for the future.

Hope, something our government hasn't been able to provide. President Hoover is well aware of this crisis that we're in, and he's done nothing. "Free market, free market, oh don't worry, everything will work itself out". Sure thing, people are starving and there is no sign of this slowing.

But now our country has a new face, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is the new president. In the spring he started up this new program called the "New Deal". This has given me some hope. I'm only 22 and I like this fellow's ideas. I worked as a carpenter here in the city and I invested heavily in the stock market. That was my undoing. One of Franklin's (I can call him by his first name see, because he speaks for me, and he's been helping me) new programs is called the Civilian Conservation Corps. What a grand name, eh? I'm hoping to join up and find work at one of their camps. They pay 30 bucks a month, and right now, you can't beat that.

I want to get out of this stuffy city and see the country, natural and unrefined. I want to have a part in shaping it to be enjoyed by future generations. But mostly I want the guarantee of a roof over my head and three square meals a day. I hit a big bump on the road of life, but it seems as if I'm finally getting over it and I have President Roosevelt to thank for that. We all do.