In the midst of the Great Depression, Dolores Schwalb's mother urged her and her sisters to put on their prettiest dresses and squeeze some fresh lemonade.
A man was coming to shut off the water at their Central Point home after they couldn't pay the bill. Her mother wanted the family to look its best and to be as polite as possible.
"We gave him the lemonade and he turned the water off," Schwalb recalled.
But he left something behind — a tool that allowed them to turn the water back on.
"People back then helped each other," she said.
Like many Americans, Schwalb has been nervously watching the news as banks close, real estate prices plunge, jobs are lost and the stock market tumbles.
It's a scene financial analysts have said is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression that started when the stock market crashed 79 years ago on Oct. 29, 1929.
"It's pretty shocking for those of us who have been through it," the Medford resident said.
Schwalb and other members of the Medford Senior Center last week shared their reminiscences of the Great Depression, a time of both hardship and camaraderie among family and neighbors.
While they see similarities between then and now, they hope this generation will be smarter and prevent the country from sliding into further financial crisis.
"People are wise enough that it is never going to get that way," Schwalb said.
As unsettling as the current financial crisis is, it still pales in comparison to the 1930s, when the unemployment rate reached 25 percent. Oregon's unemployment rate today is 6.5 percent; nationally it's 6.1 percent.
Even if the world found itself plunged into another depression, Schwalb said she would survive.
"That training that we went through when we were children means that we know we could get what we need," she said. "Not what we wanted — what we needed."
Schwalb, who is writing her memoirs, said money dried up in the 1930s after the banks closed, so people resorted to bartering for goods. The mills closed in Jackson County and her father lost his job.
But everyone had their own gardens and made their own bread and butter, she said. And every woman had a sewing machine to darn socks and repair clothes.
After the Depression, Schwalb helped operate an egg farm for a few years in Pennsylvania and ran a training facility for handicapped children in Medford, eventually adopting two of the children.
Now an art restoration expert, Schwalb said she is not concerned about her own financial future. "I'm concerned about the young people and the business people," she said.
Hardship would be more difficult on a younger generation accustomed to owning so many gadgets and having so many conveniences, she said.
Martha Kaufman
For some survivors of the Depression, the current financial collapse is more than unsettling.
"It's a sad, sad time," said Martha Kaufman.
The 89-year-old who has lived in Medford since 1979 grew up in Kent, Ohio, and was 10 years old when the Depression began.
While the economic downturn hasn't affected her yet, Kaufman worries it could cause suffering for many if it continues.
She said her son bought a house a couple of years ago in Boulder, Colo., with a no-down-payment loan. He's doing fine, but needs roommates to pay the mortgage. "He'll do all right as long as he has a job," she said.
Running out of money is nothing new for Kaufman. In fact, it is one of her earliest memories.
Before the Depression, Kaufman had saved $300 from raising celery, a substantial sum in those days.
When the bank closed, she couldn't get her money out. When it reopened, it would only lend her the $300.
"I basically lost it," she said.
Because she lived on a farm, she had plenty of food. Kaufman remembered walking down the street one day and seeing apples selling for 5 cents apiece — a lot of money, she thought.
She said everything was traded or grown on the farm and few people received paychecks.
"We had food in our bellies, but no stuff called money," she said.
Occasionally men would knock on their door asking for a handout or a meal.
"There were lots of hungry people," she said. "My mother always had something for the vagabond to eat."
Stories of people jumping out of windows in New York after losing all they had remain vivid in her mind. As do the lean Christmases during the Depression.
"The main thing I remember was Santa Claus didn't bring any presents under the tree," she said.
With more people out of work and struggling to survive, she said, "I wonder what Santa Claus will bring this year.
"It does not look good."
Iris Glanzman
Iris Glanzman said she wasn't too aware of the Great Depression when it rolled through South Dakota.
"I don't think it affected me too much because everybody was in the same situation," said the 89-year-old Medford resident. "I remember the banker suddenly disappeared. I remember reading about all the suicides."
Her father was a teacher who was paid in warrants, which soon lost their value. Warrants were like checks, but they cleared only if the funds were available in the account.
The only place in town that would accept her father's warrants was the general store, where her family could get dry goods.
Neighbors all had big gardens and her mother canned the vegetables for winter. But her father sometimes found their situation difficult to bear.
"He said he would not be able to take care of his family," Glanzman said.
The financial troubles that have stricken the country today seem different to her, but are still worrisome, she said.
She said she receives regular calls from her financial adviser. She had some money in financially shaken AIG, but her adviser told her the principal is safe.
Even though she heard encouraging news about the rescue of the financial markets, she wondered how long the economy could survive with so many struggling companies.
"How safe is safe?" she said.
May Harrison
May Harrison recalled a time of sparseness and making do with what you had, when you couldn't buy just anything you wanted.
The 96-year-old Medford woman, who married at age 16, said she's not as concerned about her own survival during these tough economic times as she is for the younger generation.
"Teenagers now wouldn't be able to stand it," she said.
There are some similarities today with the Great Depression that give her pause.
"It borders on it, but it's not the real thing," she said.
When the Great Depression hit, her family had to move from the city to a farm to survive.
Harrison remembered her sister's surprise when they arrived at a farm 30 miles outside Muskogee, Okla., and it didn't have all the conveniences they were used to.
"She said, 'Where is the bathroom?' " Harrison said. "It was funny now, but it wasn't funny then."
Being a worker all her life, Harrison developed a good memory for prices. When she was young, a gallon of gas cost 9 cents, a dozen eggs 10 cents.
Trouble was, no one had the money to buy anything. "You didn't have the 9 cents," she said.
Harrison had to leave school as a teenager so she could work, but she eventually graduated in 1960 in Medford.
She credited the government programs during the 1930s with helping bring the country out of its financial crisis. She also said the leadership of the president was extremely important for her.
"Franklin Roosevelt — I would vote for him again," she said.
Her memories of the Great Depression have had a strong impact on her through her adult years.
"It stays with you all your life," she said.
Edgar Lupton Sr.
Even though Edgar Lupton Sr. survived the Depression, he is dismayed by the current financial crisis.
"I think it stinks," said the 94-year-old Medford resident.
He's not sure the $700 billion bailout, signed by President Bush on Friday, will be enough to prevent the country's economy from sliding further.
Born in 1914, Lupton said times were particularly tough in New Jersey, and he remembered his father always working to make sure food was on the table.
His family was among the lucky ones.
"I would see a lot of people walking on the street looking for something to eat," he said. "You couldn't get a cent, though."
He tried to join a government work program but didn't qualify because his father was working at the time.
Lupton comes five days a week to the Medford Senior Center for what he describes as the best meal of the day. He said there was nothing like the food he gets for lunch available for elderly people during the Depression.
Now, as he hears about more layoffs, he hopes there won't be a repeat of the 1930s and the deprivation that ensued.
"I'm just wondering about my Social Security," he said.
Marcia Skinner
The current financial crisis is all too familiar to Marcia Skinner, who lived through the Depression.
Born in Central Point, she has lived in Medford all her life. Her father lost his savings when the financial institutions collapsed in 1929, but a garden, a cow and a lot of perseverance helped her family survive without too much suffering or wanting for food.
With memories of her father's savings still in her mind, she wonders about the security of her own retirement account.
"Now it's scary," she said. "Most of us have worked hard to take care of our old age."
Apart from her few memories of the Great Depression, Skinner said, "In my lifetime I have never seen such fear."
She said it is dismaying to watch Washington lawmakers handle the crisis.
"It doesn't seem like we have any solid statesmen," she said. "It's a crazy time. It makes you sick because it can go downhill in such a short time."
Even though the financial institutions have been reckless in recent years, so have individuals who took on risky investments or signed no-interest loans.
"It seems we brought it on ourselves," Skinner said.
Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune.com.
