I have always been fascinated by gold.
My Great Grandmother was an excellent story teller. She changed her style depending on the age of her audience and kept them hanging on every word. I remember her sitting in her rocking chair cutting quilt patches in front of the fireplace in her big bedroom as she told us stories. My cousins and I were always set to some task as we listened. Usually it was carding wool, a job I hated. Grandma, however, could not stand idle hands. One of her favorite stories was about an event that occurred when she was a little girl. It was the big excitement in town when the stagecoach brought news of Lincoln’s assassination. This was in Pennsylvania so every one was horrified. My favorite story however was about her Uncle Gideon, “who went up to the Great North Country during the gold rush and returned with untold riches”.
Much later while doing family research I discovered he spent a couple of years in Canada and returned to the PA town in 1902 with a something a little over $5,000 dollars, a sum that passed for “untold riches” back then. About $700 dollars was deducted from the 5 grand for assay costs and fees. I noted he sold his gold for $18 dollars an ounce.
In 1932 my father had a job working for the County at the County Home, a euphemism for the poor house. He drew a salary of $16 dollars a month, plus food and board. He worked 6 days a week and was on call 24 hours a day so he only came home one day a week. Mother and I lived in the County Seat town for awhile but the rented room with kitchen privileges became too expensive, so in the fall of 1932 we moved to a town about 10 miles away, into an unpainted shack that rented for $2 dollars a month. My mother lived on one small meal every other day that winter, from food mostly provided by relatives. She did her best to insure I did not go hungry. The thing I most remember about the shack is doing my home work by candle light.
In the early spring of 1933 my father spent one of his days off, spading up the lot in back of the shack and we put in a big garden. When the garden began to produce, it pretty much ended the hunger situation. I still remember the wonderful taste of green fried tomatoes.
That same spring, I remember Government Agents coming around to the shack every few weeks asking if we had any gold or gold certificates, and if so we had to sell to them at 20 dollars an ounce, because now it was illegal to own gold. Unfortunately we were fresh out of gold at the time. The Government later raised the price of gold from $20 to $35 and ounce. I never quite understood the reason for those shenanigans but I guess it provided work for the agents. I didn’t like the agents very much. They were always quite brisk, demanding and occasionally threatening. I did like the Communist Guy who came by every couple of weeks with tons of communist literature. He always brought me a couple of pieces of hard candy and my mother let me keep the bright red posters he delivered. Mother made good use of the material. Toilet paper was a luxury item back then and the communist stuff was mostly on pulp paper. At the age of seven, my vote was for sale and a couple of pieces of hard candy did the trick.
In 1935 my father got a job with the WPA and in the spring of that year we rented a farm house for $7.00 a month plus the stipulation father would help on the farm when asked. Lucky for him, the farmer did not abuse the work requirement. We planted a very big garden at this place and my mother canned a lot of the produce. In 1939 my father got a job in a factory and we moved up to a farm that rented for $10 a month. We planted a big garden and eventually acquired a cow which really improved the quality of the table. We got some chickens and a couple of hogs. There were a lot of fruit trees on this farm and we were welcome to its produce. We also bought a second hand car. Talk about living high on the hog!
At no time did any church offer to help my family and I don’t think help from that quarter was available. I’m sure my mother would have jumped at any assistance she could find. The big cities had soup kitchens periodically but not small towns. I am disgusted when I hear the myth that the churches did a better job assisting the poor than the Government does now. An elderly couple starved to death in the little town the year we lived in the shack. I have tried to find statistics of how many people starved to death during the Depression but none seem to be available. I believe it was thousands. I guess it’s a statistic we’re not too proud of.
Jump forward to 1996. My wife wanted to visit Niagara Falls and though we were about 50 years late, that’s what we did. While in Canada I stopped in a bank and bought 20 maple leaf $50 dollar gold pieces. When my wife discovered what I had done she was outraged. I explained the coins would make great gifts for graduations, weddings, and the like for nieces, nephews and grandchildren, and she agreed. After 50 years you know exactly what buttons to push.
I still have 6 of the coins left so on occasion I cause my TV device to switch to CSNBC, the finance channel and check on the current market price of gold. CSNBC runs a crawl across the top of the screen and if one waits long enough the price of gold comes up. Sometimes while waiting I listen to the chatter of the talking heads. I speak two languages fluently and have a working knowledge of a couple more but I seldom understand anything the financial guys are saying. These people live in a different world than I do, and I strongly suspect in a reality that does not actually exist. Tune in and tell me what you think.