The Class of '29
Listen to this story(Note: Producer Matthew Algeo's narrative is in lower case, while all quotes from interview subjects are in upper case)
At a restaurant in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the Fond du Lac High School Class of 1929 recently held its 75th reunion.
SOUND OF REUNION.
Nearly 200 people were in the Fond du Lac High Class of '29.
SOUND OF CHAMPAGNE OPENING.
Eight attended this reunion.
LET'S DRINK TO THE HAPPY TIME WE HAVE TOGETHER AND ASK THE LORD TO BLESS ALL OF US AND BLESS THE FOOD WE ARE ABOUT TO EAT. ((GLASS CLINKS))
When they graduated, Herbert Hoover was in the White House and the Roaring Twenties were still in full swing:
1929. THAT'S WHEN MEN WERE MEN AND THE PLUMBING WAS OUTSIDE.
Eight members of the Fond du Lac High School class of 1929 pose for their 75th reunion in Wisconsin. (Photo: Matthew Algeo)
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Tom Downes had big plans when he graduated from Fond du Lac High -- he wanted to be a lawyer. But then the stock market crashed, the Depression hit, his father died -- and his family lost their home:
SO WE KINDA STRUGGLED ALONG, WITH MY MOTHER AND MY SISTER.
Downes eventually did go to law school, with the help of an uncle who had a good, steady job: He was a Catholic priest. His classmate Gene Noe wasn't as lucky. Noe planned to go to college to study engineering. He never went:
WHEN WE GRADUATED, JOBS WERE GETTING TO BE REAL SCARCE, RIGHT AWAY. AND MY DAD SAID, HEY, GET A JOB SOMEWHERES -- AND THEN HANG ON TO IT!
Between the autumn of 1929 and the summer of 1932 -- less than three years -- the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell a whopping 89 percent.
FOR US TO HAVE AS BAD A DECLINE IN THE DOW IT WOULD HAVE TO GO TO BELOW 12-HUNDRED. I MEAN, THAT'S PRETTY BAD.
Historian John Steele Gordon says the crash was the opening act of the Great Depression, and it changed America in many ways. Above all, he says, it changed the federal government's priorities:
Members of the class of 1929 look over their yearbook at their 75th reunion. (Photo: Matthew Algeo)
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WHEN HOOVER WAS ELECTED, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS WAS FIRST OF ALL, THE DEFENSE OF THE COUNTRY. SECOND, IT WAS BALANCING THE FEDERAL BUDGET. AFTER HERBERT HOOVER, THE FIRST THING TO DO WAS TO STILL DEFEND THE COUNTRY. THE SECOND THING WAS TO PREVENT ANOTHER GREAT DEPRESSION.
To do that, the government has created everything from the Securities and Exchange Commission to Social Security. In many ways, our lives are still governed by legislation spawned by the crash and the Depression. But to those who lived through it -- like Gene Noe and the rest of the Class of 1929 -- the connection to those historic events is more personal:
IT WAS NOT ALL RIGHT BECAUSE I COULD SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE HAD TO SUFFER AND ALL THAT. AND THE DEPRESSION -- WE REALIZED IT WAS THERE. I WAS HAPPY THROUGH IT. YOU KNOW. BUT I GOT A KIND OF A WAY OF BEING HAPPY EVEN WHEN THINGS GO BAD.
Noe says he had such a good time at his 75th high school reunion that he can't wait until the 80th. I'm Matthew Algeo for Marketplace.
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