Emmett Conway Sr. Emmett Conway Sr.

Age: 84

Occupation: Retired Logger

Hometown: McArthur

Interviewer: Nathan Yates, Derek Gribble, Garth                         Fri

 

How did your family make a living?     Listen to Emmett Conway         Listen to Emmett Conway


Interview

Q: How old are you?

A: 84

Q: What year were you born?

A: 1914 during WWI. We lived near Youngstown.

Q: Did you live on a farm?

A: We, I say we because I have a twin brother, my brother lives in Philadelphia and he is fifteen minutes older than I am. We lived in Glouster in one of the coal mine towns. In 1916 they started having labor troubles in the mine. There were seven of us children at the time, dad was a steam engineer, and he operated a power plant that gave electricity to the mines. They were in demand because the coalmines were run by steam.

Q: What do you remember about the depression?

A: I remember plenty. We felt the affects of it all the time. I was born in 1914. I had a paper route and we delivered sixty papers. Then, in October 1929 the stock market crashed and they came out with an extra paper and we ran around the neighborhood yelling, "Extra! Extra! Read all about the stock market crash!" At the same time we were working at a golf course and it was closed because nobody had any money and people were losing their jobs. We graduated from high school in February 1932, and we couldn’t afford to go college. So we had to work at the boy scout camp until 1933, and then we were able to go while living at home.

 


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