It was the Depression because no white and no blacks were working. The whites not working made it official. - Studs Terkel

The war was fun for America. I’m not talking about the poor souls who lost sons and daughters. But for the rest of us, the war was a hell of a good time. Farmers in South Dakota that I administered relief to and gave ’em bully beef and four dollars a week to feed their families, when I came home were worth a quarter-million dollars, right? It’s forgotten now.

I wanted to be at my parents’ house when electricity came. It was in 1940. We’d all go around flipping the switch, to make sure it hadn’t come on yet. We didn’t want to miss it. When they finally came on, the lights just barely glowed. I remember my mother smiling. When they came on full, tears started to run down her cheeks. After a while, she said: “Oh, if we only had it when you children were growing up.” We had lots of illness. Anyone who’s never been in a family without electricity — with illness — can’ t imagine the difference.

What I remember most of those times is that poverty creates desperation, and desperation creates violence.