Growing up there was no such thing as television, and no one could have ever imag- ined the Internet or cell phones. The only thing barely close to either of them was found in Science Fiction. We learned the news by reading newspapers and listening to scratchy AM radios. The radio was invented in 1895, and TV a few years after I was born, in 1927. They were both miracle inventions during my childhood. One way to get the country back on its feet was through government-sponsored work agencies. All of those agencies were referred to by their acronyms. There were so many of them that they were collectively called, The Alphabet Agencies. One of those agencies was the WPA (Works Progress Administration). I was taught that when a man could not get a job anywhere else, he could always go to work for the WPA. Often that work consisted of doing menial labor, and most of what they did was considered ‘make work.’ The WPA was derided by many. I overheard a man wasn’t much of a man if all he could do was work for the WPA. The Great Depression never did end on its own. Despite all the government programs, it took another war to pull the nation out, and when it did America roared back to life. I was just a kid. We may not have had much money, but my world was full of the riches a young boy would easily happen upon in a small town. My friends and I would prowl the streets like a pack of wolves. We never caused much damage. We rode our bikes, kicked tin cans, wandered out to the swamp, and played baseball. Whatever the group mentality the kids came up with that day is where you would find me. I knew every alley and every shortcut in my neighborhood. In the alley behind my home was a soda water factory called The Liberty Bottling Works. My friends and I used to get odd jobs over there. In return, they would give us free soda.
Work Progress Administration the WPA
A dilapidated building stood at one corner of my street. It had been a hotel in years past. The entire years of my youth it was left to rot. Of course, the kids in my neighborhood managed to find a way inside. Once, I heard somebody fell down the empty elevator shaft. To prove how rambunctious I was, I have a large scar on my thigh, evidence of when I carelessly jumped a fence and caught my leg on an exposed nail. I wore that scar on my leg for the rest of my life. “Our greatest primary task is to put people to work.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt First Inaugural Address March 4, 1933
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