Fourteen Months
By Mildred Bouck
Three months after our daughter was born Commissioner of Public Works Eugene F. Garce, called on me, asking me to come back to work in Public Welfare (as it was called in 1939) to work as a case worker in Home Relief. The gentleman who had filled that position had purchased a business of his own. He advised that I would need a car of my own and would be paid 10 cents a mile on business trips for the Agency.
The first day I accompanied a worker on the Old Age Assistance Program. We called on several families and I tried to take notes that would be legible the next day. The first person I visited alone lived in the town of Sharon was the R____ family. Application had been made for medical care for Mrs. R and care of a practical nurse also. Worker found Mrs. R bedridden, from the birth of her eighth child. Mr. R was present and worker asked if he was working and if so what at? He said he had been helping a nearby farmer with chores and planting, had just started haying. His first check, however he had spent on a “three-day drunk”, and all the money was gone thus their application for assistance. Worker talked with Mr. and Mrs. R regarding Mr. R having a vasectomy. Both thought that it was a fine idea. However on leaving the R home she met the county Health Nurse who asked about discussion with the parents. After hearing this CW said, “How would you feel if the family were in an accident and all were killed and they were to have no more children”. To which I replied “Don’t you think it is more apt to happen that Mr. R gets drunk again and they have a new baby and Mrs. R doesn’t survive? The very next family was the C____ family of the town of Gilboa. He was out of work and the family needed full assistance. Before going to the home worker called on a local sawmill operator who said they were hiring and they would take Mr. C. When worker reported this to Mr. C he didn’t make any reply but worker later learned he had moved out of the county the very next day. But this wasn’t the last we heard from this family. We were requested to pay for new eyeglasses for Mr. C. They were now living in the town of Richmondville. Worker found the home neat and clean. Mrs. C had even made curtains for the windows out of cheesecloth (ten cents a yard) and she was desperately in need of new eyeglasses. Worker went to Mr. C’s employer and asked if he would pay for the glasses and withhold $10 or even $5 from Mr. C’s weekly pay and he said it would be fine with him if with Mr. C. Worker saw him telling Mr. C of the offer, he said “No way,” his wife really didn’t need glasses!! Mr. C was quite deaf to worker so that she’d really would like to have slapped his face while she was that close to him, to make him hear.
1939-1940... Deep in the Big Depression. People were flocking from New York City to upstate — no assistance to be had — not a job for anyone in the city. Worker was surprised during a walk up a lane in the town of Schoharie to hear lovely violin music. It turned out that the man of the house had a position in a well-known New York City orchestra. His wife and two teenage children were also there, all intelligent and well spoken. It seemed degrading to me that all we had to offer him was a job on the road at $4 a day.
Another experience during the same period was a family I met who sold their home in the city and bought a farm and three cows in the town of Broome that had been sold them by an overzealous real estate agent. “Such beautiful hay,” he told me, said the new farmer. It was all goldenrod. However with some assistance the family worked together and made a small success.
An experience in the town of Gilboa was most unpleasant. The family applied for assistance and when worker arrived the Mrs. was busy at the sewing machine making her daughter a coat from a large one. When worker asked Mr. M about taking a job on the town road he said he wouldn’t consider it for the small amount he would be paid. Worker told him he could report for work or find himself in the Schoharie Co. Jail which is just what actually happened, and then Mr. M told the Sheriff he would go from jail to work — worker during home visit also talked with the teenage son about going into the Civilian Conservation Corps. His answer “what they pay wouldn’t keep me in cigarettes.” Then Mrs. M spoke up “you both know what she says is true, so just give it to them, Lady!”
It all happened 60 some years ago — the time of the Great Depression.