Voices of the Great Depression--The 1930's

I was choked with feeling that I could hardly say, "Thank you." I was remembering the grim and unloving stepfather who had made her drop out of school and go to work in the nearby cotton mill in Greenville, South Carolina. I think that she did not finish the seventh grade.

I remembered stepping into this mill and being stunned and cowed by the cotton flying in the air and by the heavy clank of all the machinery. I remembered standing on a hill above this mill the year before in 1932 and seeing a ring of armed National Guardsmen, sent by the governor, setting up tents. The governor had sent them to break the strike against unhealthful conditions, poor pay, and child labor. This aunt’s brother-in-law was fired by this mill for striking, but he managed to get a job with the more humane Springs Mills in Lancaster.

My aunt gave me this money out of the tiny paycheck she got from that mill. I knew she was proud of her nieces and nephews who were going on to school, and she wanted me to be what she could never be. She also wanted my hair to be as beautiful as possible for the highly respected event of graduation.

Thank you again, Aunt Eva. You have helped me stay sensitive to all unfairness to all working people, and I am keenly aware of generosity wherever and whenever it is shown."

- V Thomas - South Carolina