Depression Days

By the end of the 1920's we had a radio at home, and could get several stations, so the great stock market crash of 29/30 and the 10 year depression that followed was remembered even by a five year old. Hearing of people jumping off bridges and out of windows to their deaths, as described by reporters. and watching the concern on your parent's faces was enough to make even a child remember. Best that I not comment on our present situation.

Those years through the thirties were memorable for many things, - some good and some bad. On the farm we were really fortunate to have enough to eat. My dad and older brothers would hunt in the fall for game birds and deer and elk. It was not the sport hunting that it is today. I was with my dad one day on a hunt in the shellrock area around Penticton and we had not sighted any game. It was late and the light was going fast. We spotted four or five deer headed up out of the ravine about 800 yards away. Dad was an excellent shot, but with poor light and shooting down hill it took him five or six shots to finally knock one down. He was upset because at five cents a shell it was too costly. We went down and dressed the deer, but had to come back the next morning to get it out.

By way of explanation concerning the necessity of hunting game, this was part of the existence of pioneers who had to live off the land.



As well as providing for our family there were many days when there would be extra mouths to feed. When the Kettle Valley Railroad was being built in 1915 the grade cut through a small corner of our property and the house was only a few hundred yards from the tracks. More importantly, down the tracks a half mile was the Randolph Draw trestle which was built on a curve that required the heavily loaded freight trains to reduce their speed significantly, much the same as when the train was coming into the main yards.

The men who rode the rods looking for some kind of work would jump off to avoid the railroad police in the yards. Of course when they discovered that they were still eight miles from the hobo jungle where there might be something to eat, they would head for the nearest farm house. They hoped that they could do some kind of work for a meal. It was a matter of pride that they would feel they were not begging if they could pay for the meal in some way.

In a lot of cases these men were professional and well educated. They probably had a wife and children somewhere in Canada. The government of the time would pay a small allowance to the family but the husband had to try to find work.

For those of us in the impressionable age (from 5 to 12) it was a time of learning from the vast store of knowledge that these men possessed. A lot of them were vets from the Boer War and the first World War, and their experiences traveling across the country looking for work added to our education.

In this day and age parents would be reluctant to have their youngsters associating with the 'hoboes' as they were called. In those days if child abuse were to occur the perpetrator would be severely dealt with by his associates and he would be lucky to get away with life. In towns such individuals would be tarred and feathered and run out of town.

I don't know all the circumstances that caused these men to be forced to such desperate measures - riding on the tops of box cars in all kinds of weather. Sometimes they might be lucky enough to find an empty one, but then there was the danger of the heavy door slamming shut and locking them in if they did not find a block of wood large enough to prevent this.

The third option was even worse, and I believe it is where the expression ' riding the rods' came from. Since I don't have access to a rail car any more I have to guess, but I believe there were two heavy rods under the deck of the cars, anchored on one end to the back and the front axles, running to an anchor point in the centre of the deck. These rods, on a slight upwards angle, were about two or three feet apart, allowing a man to lay with some innovation of boards or wire in some comfort, although in an extremely dangerous location.

This type of behavior may look exciting in the movies, but it cost a lot of good men their lives.



My mother always fed them if she could, and that's where some of the deer and elk meat went. I think there are men still alive today that went through that time, but their ranks are getting thinner with every day that goes by.

We can only hope that in the present financial difficulties we manage to prevent the terrible economic collapse of the thirties.