Mom's depression stories led to cheerier ones, such as when my grandmother turned the Country Day School into a place where gifted black children could receive an elevated education. One of the first programs of its kind, and a model for some early Head Start programs. 
BTW, one of the buildings on the school’s campus today is named for her.
I asked Mom what her most vivid memory of the Depression was. “Dad took me into Birmingham (MI) to see our shuttered bank.” She can’t remember why he wanted her to see it, but the image has been burned into her memory ever since.
Astounds me that my still-living mother went to this 1-room schoolhouse thru 6th grade (she thinks she’s in this pic). Remarkable what we take for granted today, and how relatively short a time we had them before the Reagan-era scumbags came to take it all away.
Asked what images of poor classmates she had, mom recalled brothers “Dirty George & Sammy,” from the unemployed “skilled labor” shantytowns on 14 mi road. She never saw them in shoes. They were always so hungry, her mom started packing extra lunch to share with them.
Mom’s family weathered Depression fairly well. Dad, on the other hand, was from NYC (where Lincoln Center now stands). His depression-era mindset (and GI pay) prevented him affording much. He proposed to her at Columbus Circle… with a cigar band ring :)
