More on The Great Depression

In the small town where I was raised I was of the affluent elite, because my father taught school and had a salary, altho years later I learned we lived far below the poverty line. Our neighbors had no money at all and lived in houses they did not own. we lived in a certified Ghost Town.

The Great Depression

Back in the day it was only a depression, not The Great.
The depression was underway in Iowa in the early twenties. During the Great War when the price of wheat was high, farmers borrowed money. Then they lost their farms when the war was over and the price of wheat fell.
The stock market crashed in 1929.
I was born in 1926. My memories began after Roosevelt had been elected president. In rural Michigan where I lived, everybody I knew hated Roosevelt and the New Deal. R slaughtered baby pigs. (This was a program to reduce production. Pigs were slaughtered and farmers were paid not to plant.)

My father was out of work in 1936. We lived on credit. Our landlady allowed us to stay in our rented house and our grocer extended credit.

We ate beans and beans and beans and beans. During the summer we canned and canned. we picked wild blackberries and canned fifty quarts. During the summer we ate string beans cooked in milk. My mother was nutrition conscious.

Fear

Today on NPR I listened to a rabbi who has written a book about getting along with your relatives who disagree with you. *Faith without Fanaticism*
He suggests that one asks the other, "What about this frightens you?"

So I asked myself, "What frightens you about Sarah Palin?"
I have said before that I feel as if I were looking at the Ghost of Christmas Past. Gov. Palin is straight out of the fifties, the Eisenhower administration.
I guess I fear that all the advances (in my opinion) made by women during the past fifty years will be cancelled.

My fears lessened during the VP debate when Palin modified her stance on gay marriage. It occurred to me that culture itself will put pressure on Palin. The culture has moved forward. A cultural lag can only do so much.

And culture change comes about as a result of technology change. I would suggest that the women's movement came about because women no longer produce at home. In the old days women had a great deal of work to do in the household.

The Election

Last night I listened to the acceptance speech of the first African-American president elect. I had a proprietary feeling that I had helped bring about this moment.
In the sixties I marched in civil rights demonstrations. In Lansing MI that was not very dangerous, but my feet hurt.
Even last year I never would have believed that this man could be elected president.
As a sociologist, I think after listening all day to the analysis of exit polls that it boils down to demographics. A new generation has arrived.

Oct 15

I have had one comment from Whited Sepulchre, asking if I see any difference between Republican and Democratic party.
Actually, I don't think so. What I do think is that we need two parties, fighting each other.
I lived in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas during the fifties, when there was only one party in that county (Democrats). It was corrupt. That is the county where Lyndon Johnson got his extra votes.
On the other hand, I do not want to see a strong minority third party. That third party can hold hostage the government, as in Israel. The Orthodox Party keeps the religious laws in place.

I think the Republicans have had their turn. Now it is time to have the Democrats.
By the way, I never voted for LBJ. During the sixties, I votd the Prohibition Party in Michigan. In 1976 I was on a third party ticket.

Spanglish

My professional interest has always been culture change. And part of culture change is language change.
I am now obsessed with the juxtaposition of English and Spanish, particularly in Texas.
For more than twenty-five years I have noticed that TexMex seems to have lost the use of the Spanish estar (one form of to be). In formal Spanish, our English verb to be has two forms. Ser is used for a "state", as in Yo soy una mujer. Estar is used for place, as in Yo estoy en mi casa.
Tex Mex seems to be using only ser for both senses.
Last week I was trying to explain this to my companions in a restaurant. I asked the Hispanic waitress, "What does yo estoy mean in English?"
She did not know.
Later she came back and told me that it meant "I am here."
People use "Yo soy aqui."

Following Election campaign 10/5

I am shocked that McCain has given up campaigning in Michigan. Michigan is my home state.
I have never heard of giving up campaigning in a state. It has probably been done and I just did not realize.
Michigan is in such dire economic straits that nothing can be done. My son has a small business in Lansing MI. That was a one industry town, Oldsmobile, which has shut down. Period.