The New Hard Times

[elleng]

13 Year Old interviews his grandmother about the Great Depression

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/thenewhardtimes/index.html#/hamer

[fasttense]

1. Interesting. Thanks for posting.

It is interesting that Grandmother said getting food and enough to eat was the most difficult part of the Depression. She almost broke down about it, all these years later.

She went to work as a high school student working 36 hours a week and making 15 cents an hour. She said it would be considered child abuse today. Oh, I don't know, it sounds like a job Republicons would approve of. You know, a Non-Union job using child labor. The kind of thing Republicons love - hard times for others.

[elleng]

2. Her emotional reaction was interesting.

To what extent do current child labor laws hinder families from doing the sort of thing she did, in desparation, for her family?