My name is Ruth June nee Rich Lehti. I was born June 10,1921, so I was 8 years old in
1929 when the depression hit. I lived in Miami, Florida where a Building Boom had not occurred. No jobs were available so my folks decided each would return to their own people and whoever found work would send for the other.
My Dad, Lowell Rich, went to the family farm in Indiana and took my brother, Clarence – 6 years old at the time.
I went with my mom, Emma Rich, to Manhattan, New York City, New York. In Miami we had lived in a house by the railroad track, and Clarence and I enjoyed running beside the train. The engineer tooted the whistle, and let off lots of steam! When Mom and I rode a Pullman Train to New York, I was in awe. The seats were very wide and deep and tall. At night the Porter made them into a bed.
Mom had a brother in Rochester, one in Brooklyn, and a sister in the Bronx. Mom got a job as a housekeeper for a man in Manhattan, and we had a curtained-off bedroom. Each evening mom read me a chapter of “The Secret Garden” book and I could hardly wait for the next time. It was also when the song, “Love Letters In The Sand” came out or was popular. The man’s daughter sang it when she and her new husband came by to visit him. It was the first time I’d heard it and it sounded romantic.
Mom found a job as Supervisor of a brownstone 5- flat Apartment building and sent for Daddy and Clarence. Meanwhile, she had to haul the huge filled garbage cans up the stairs in the basement to the alley so the garbage trucks could empty them. We lived on the top floor (5th ) and there were no elevators. It was one big room. A double bed was by the alley window for Mom and Dad, I had a cot and my brother had a cot. A table with chairs was by the other alley window and a piano filled the remaining space. That was the only time we had a piano and I loved to hear my mom play it. Her favorites were “Star of The East”, “Bye Bye Blackbird,” ” Missouri Waltz”, Our Little Gray Home In The West” I tried to take a few lessons and learned to play “O Solo Mio” and at the recital, I (Ruth) heard a man say that he thought the girl who played O Solo Mio” did the best. I was thrilled. The flat below ours was rented by a lady who studied voice and she sang the scales very loudly for hours at a time.
Often times singers and instrumental players sang and played in the Alley. People threw them a nickel, dime or quarter and then they could by food.
We washed our laundry in the sink or tub and had clothes lines on pulleys over the alley. Wooden sliced clothes pins were used. Later on the clasp ones were invented and were a great help. There was no such thing as vinyl or foam then.
When we first went to Miami, Florida, we stayed in a one-room cottage. The bath house was for all the cottages and had only sinks and toilets. Therefore, on Saturday night the big laundry tin tub came out and teakettles of boiling water made our bath water warm. I (Ruth) always took my bath first and it never occurred to me that the water would be dirty for my brother, next in line. My mother was next and then dad – guess his water was icky. That house was blown away by the 1926 hurricane, along with our car and everything we owned. One house we lived in had a pump and we had to prime it and pump water to fill the washtub and rinsing tub. We used a washboard and wrung out our clothes by hand. Once we had a wringer that was turned by a handle and sat on the top of the rinse tub. We used bluing to made the clothes white, and had thick starch and thin starch – thick for collars, cuffs and front button area. We had clotheslines in the yard and the clothes smelled so fresh in the air and sunlight. They had less wrinkles if hung properly. We had to iron everything. Momma had some irons that she had to heat on the stove. Momma did washing and ironing to earn money – 10 cents for one shirt. Daddy tried gardening but people didn’t’ hire many during the depression years.
Earl, a man who lives at Wildomar Sr. Asst. Living, lived in Brook, Indiana where Leila Hansen, J. D. Rich’s relative lived. Earl says that J. D. Rich, m y dad’s Uncle, ran the Bank in Indianapolis and left when it closed due to the depression. He had farm sections and grain silos. His granddaughter, Louise Rich babysat me (Ruth) in Indiana and then moved to Miami, Florida and was a History teacher at Miami Edison High School. Ruth and some of the other kids would walk along with her on 60th St. after she got off the Bus on N. E. 2nd St. or Miami Avenue.
The School was on N. W. 7l Avenue. Ruth graduated from Edison High in June 1939.
We had no radios or TVs. We played hopscotch, Jacks, turned cartwheels. We never heard of Soccer. In high school we played volley ball and baseball, and the boys played football. We played card games, – Gin Rummy, Old Maid, Please and Thank You, etc. My mom loved Pinochle – Never heard of Poker.
In New York, Prohibition was on, and liquor was illegal. In the basement of our Brownstone Apt. House was a Speak- Easy where shady characters often came to drink liquor. One day my dad found a bottle with some whiskey init and drank it. My mom was furious and yelled at him a long time. It was put out of business and one day my brother and I looked around there and he found a cigar butt and some matches. He was about 8 years old and smoked it like a veteran for about a minute.
Then he started turning green and became so sick I had to take him upstairs to Momma. I was so scared that I never smoked a cigarette, much less a cigar. We didn’t tell Momma why he was sick until she was almost 70 yrs old.
Movies were a nickel and Clarence and I went every Saturday in New York. Some mean boys used to fill cloth sacks with flour and beat us with them like with a club. A nice black boy, son of a Doctor, lived across the street from us. He was older – 13, and a Boy Scout. He used to chase the bad boys away from us so we could run home. Sometimes his dad would take us to the park with his son and buy us ice cream cones. Then he would show movies of “Peck’s Bad Boy” and “Our Gang” in his home and invite us over. To us black people are just like God’s other children – better behaved than some.
In Miami, where we returned after a year in New York, we lived in a house that had been condemned. My mom put on her shoe one morning and a scorpion we in it and bit her. She was allergic to it and her leg swelled up terribly big. We had a huge front yard with a Royal Ponciana Tree that had branches that sprawled over most of the yard. Several months of the year, bright orange flowers covered the tree. It was beautiful. Clarence and I and all the kids in the neighborhood liked to play Tarzan – swinging from one limb to the other. In those days, crime was not expected and we never locked our doors. We’d play hide and seek and the yard until 9 PM quite often. Many times during the day we played records on our Victrola that we had to wind up, and tried to dance even if we didn’t know how. One neighbor boy, Billy Yates, gave me handkerchiefs for my birthday, the only Surprise Party I ever had and I was thrilled for days. Of course, the next year I didn’t “like” him anymore.
Those were simple days, when every got to know their neighbors and everybody helped out anyone in trouble. People went to Church every Sunday – all day. and had values and respect for people and things. We wanted to do right and make the world better. What happened?? Momma used to brown a chuck roast (cheapest cut) every Sunday, and put it in a pan in her portable electric oven. She put potatoes, carrots, and onions in also and it browned for 5 or 6 hours while we took the bus to Sunday School and Church, and took the bus back. It was the best meal – have never tasted on that good since. Moms loved their families and parents tried to do their very best for their children. We kids never expected a
lot of things. At Christmas time one toy was GREAT! I remember getting a doll and I was so thrilled – my only present. For my birthday, I got a silhouette set and enjoyed cutting and pasting sunsets, mountains, Palm trees, etc. My brother got an erector set and he liked that. The depression days were very hard on my parents but they showed us children so much love and care that we survived it without suffering.