When the stock market crashed I was three years old. By the time this event had become meaningful to me, the depression was nearly over. Yet the patterns of my life were set by this event. For the generation to which my parents belonged, this was the end of the American dream. My grandmother's life savings of $17 bought me a watch for my graduation from high school. Actually, the depression had been creeping up on the Midwest for some years. During the First World War, the farmers of the midwest had borrowed money to expand during a period of high grain prices. After the War, during the twenties, prices fell and farmers lost their farms. In Iowa, where I was born, the depression was full blown by 1929. So my father made a decision to move back to Michigan, influenced by my mother's desire to be closer to her parents. The glacier that came down from the north creating the Great Lakes stopped just in time to create Michigan, the beautiful peninsula. Glacial moraine covered the northern half of this peninsula, providing the appropriate soil to produce the tall pines. The masts of the tall ships came from Michigan. For half a century the loggers clear cut this forest, leaving behind the stumps. For this soil was not productive for agriculture. At the edge of this moraine lay a gravel pit, providing the basis for a town named Hersey. It was to this town that we moved in the summer of 1929 when I was three years old. My little sister had just been born, and she was not doing well. I remember her lying in a box on the open oven door of the range in our kitchen. Aunts and cousins came to stay with us to help take care of her. Finally my folks took the drastic step of taking Persis to the city of Grand Rapids to find a doctor specialist. He diagnosed the problem as pyloris spasms. That is, the muscle leading from stomach to intestines would spasm and Persis would vomit. The solution was to feed the baby solid foods such as mashed banana. The whole countryside was shocked. Nobody fed a baby solid food until the baby had teeth. My sister flourished.