Fred Voges
(Retired insurance broker, Cincinnati, OH)
(Retired insurance broker, Cincinnati, OH)
Like millions of other Americans, the Great Depression left a lasting impact on Fred Voges. Having lost his father at 11 years old, Fred, his mother and brother, were forced to claw an existence from what little money and opportunities were available at the time. Opened in 1941, the Wright Aeronautical Plant provided over 27,000 jobs to out of work Cincinnati residents, and was to Fred along with many others, "salvation". Mr. Voges spent the war there until he was laid off with nearly 20,000 others upon the plant's closure following the surrender of Japan in 1945. He eventually found a career in insurance where he worked for more than 30 years until his retirement. Nearly 90 years old, I interviewed Mr. Voges on a Sunday afternoon in May, 2009 at his home of over 50 years in Anderson Township, just outside of Cincinnati.
Well I don’t know where exactly where to start. I achieved my American dream, I achieved what I wanted. Had a decent job, had a good wife and good kids and good grandkids. Lived comfortably, not luxuriously but comfortably. Well the American dream is o.k. as far as I’m concerned.
I lived here all my life with the exception of about 5 years in the fifties when we lived in Florida. My father died in 1930, that’s right at the beginning of the depression and left my mother, my brother and I, with very little money, and a bleak immediate future for sure. But we got along, my mother was a very resourceful person and she, women didn’t really have many jobs in those days, but she did certain things like selling Christmas cards. She also sold a line of ladies wear and eked out a living doin that. People did help us out somewhat but not a whole lot. It was mostly our own efforts, until 4 or 5 years went by we had a friend that worked for the Cincinnati gas and electric company that was instrumental in getting her a job there, in the home lighting department. And that was a godsend to us.
The depression was much worse at this point. You had people, had no food standing in line at the soup kitchens, the only food they had. And there was just no money it seemed like, nobody had any money, a few dollars here and there. I remember one time I was riding my bicycle along Montgomery road and I looked up and I thought I saw a purse. I thought “I’ll go back and look at that”, it was a purse! I picked it up, I saw green money in it. I thought “Oh my God!” I stuck that in my pocket and took off, to get away from there before somebody came along and claimed it. 'Cause I knew it wasn’t mine, but it was something I had. Well I’d got home it was seven dollars! Boy my mother was delighted, “now we can buy you a new suede jacket” and that sort of thing. Everybody was in more or less that shape, just wasn’t money around.
No help from anybody from the government. I guess if you’d been starving to death they might have given you a bowl of soup or something like that. Other than that, they did nothing. You didn’t even know Washington was there, as far as I’m concerned. They had programs, well you know the WPA program. I knew people that worked for that, and that was really about the only knowledge or contact that I had with the government. Which in effect I had none, directly. I knew some people that worked for 'em. No, no, you just went on the best you could, that’s all. There wasn’t really any optimism, waiting for it to get better. I really didn’t have many good feelings about FDR myself, and I, (laughs), don’t know that I ever did, course as I say my whole life revolved around that Wright plant.
Everybody had a hard time with it, a lot of people lost their jobs. We had one good friend who was a jewelry salesman, traveled all over the country. But during the depression he just stayed home. There was no point in him travelin', he couldn’t sell anything. And others we knew, they got by. People just got by one way or another. I wanted to be a ballplayer, (laughs). But I couldn’t play ball well enough, so that was just out of the question. And I just, I just sorta hoped for a job in commerce or industry. We didn’t have the money to, for me to even think of goin' to college and think of learning anything like that. Then Wright aeronautical came to town. That was a salvation, my salvation along with thousands of others.
I worked there for all during the war, four years. And worked up to 50 cents an hour or so, that was pretty good money in those days, but then it suddenly closed when the war was over. That plant was built to produce engines for bombers, for the war. It was strictly a war time operation, owned by the Federal government. All the Wright’s did was run it, but it was owned by the Federal government, and the minute the armistice or whatever it was happened, Boom, that plant shut down like that. It served its purpose, it built many an engine that served the country well, and I was proud to work there. Course at the end of the war I wasn’t any better off, the veterans had first choice on a lot of things. Which they should have had, and I had a very difficult time getting started again after the war. There was jobs that didn’t pan out, it took me a long time to get going.
Life is not easy, at least for most people, I don’t think it ever will be. In my opinion there’s little an individual can do. All you can do is try to live within your means, try to accumulate a little ahead of the game, and if and when you do, try to spend it wisely until things get better. I’m a firm believer in this country and the opportunities it gives its citizens, and there’s no better place in the world in my opinion, and I don’t like to hear anything contrary to the U.S.A.
Well I don’t know where exactly where to start. I achieved my American dream, I achieved what I wanted. Had a decent job, had a good wife and good kids and good grandkids. Lived comfortably, not luxuriously but comfortably. Well the American dream is o.k. as far as I’m concerned.
I lived here all my life with the exception of about 5 years in the fifties when we lived in Florida. My father died in 1930, that’s right at the beginning of the depression and left my mother, my brother and I, with very little money, and a bleak immediate future for sure. But we got along, my mother was a very resourceful person and she, women didn’t really have many jobs in those days, but she did certain things like selling Christmas cards. She also sold a line of ladies wear and eked out a living doin that. People did help us out somewhat but not a whole lot. It was mostly our own efforts, until 4 or 5 years went by we had a friend that worked for the Cincinnati gas and electric company that was instrumental in getting her a job there, in the home lighting department. And that was a godsend to us.
The depression was much worse at this point. You had people, had no food standing in line at the soup kitchens, the only food they had. And there was just no money it seemed like, nobody had any money, a few dollars here and there. I remember one time I was riding my bicycle along Montgomery road and I looked up and I thought I saw a purse. I thought “I’ll go back and look at that”, it was a purse! I picked it up, I saw green money in it. I thought “Oh my God!” I stuck that in my pocket and took off, to get away from there before somebody came along and claimed it. 'Cause I knew it wasn’t mine, but it was something I had. Well I’d got home it was seven dollars! Boy my mother was delighted, “now we can buy you a new suede jacket” and that sort of thing. Everybody was in more or less that shape, just wasn’t money around.
No help from anybody from the government. I guess if you’d been starving to death they might have given you a bowl of soup or something like that. Other than that, they did nothing. You didn’t even know Washington was there, as far as I’m concerned. They had programs, well you know the WPA program. I knew people that worked for that, and that was really about the only knowledge or contact that I had with the government. Which in effect I had none, directly. I knew some people that worked for 'em. No, no, you just went on the best you could, that’s all. There wasn’t really any optimism, waiting for it to get better. I really didn’t have many good feelings about FDR myself, and I, (laughs), don’t know that I ever did, course as I say my whole life revolved around that Wright plant.
Everybody had a hard time with it, a lot of people lost their jobs. We had one good friend who was a jewelry salesman, traveled all over the country. But during the depression he just stayed home. There was no point in him travelin', he couldn’t sell anything. And others we knew, they got by. People just got by one way or another. I wanted to be a ballplayer, (laughs). But I couldn’t play ball well enough, so that was just out of the question. And I just, I just sorta hoped for a job in commerce or industry. We didn’t have the money to, for me to even think of goin' to college and think of learning anything like that. Then Wright aeronautical came to town. That was a salvation, my salvation along with thousands of others.
I worked there for all during the war, four years. And worked up to 50 cents an hour or so, that was pretty good money in those days, but then it suddenly closed when the war was over. That plant was built to produce engines for bombers, for the war. It was strictly a war time operation, owned by the Federal government. All the Wright’s did was run it, but it was owned by the Federal government, and the minute the armistice or whatever it was happened, Boom, that plant shut down like that. It served its purpose, it built many an engine that served the country well, and I was proud to work there. Course at the end of the war I wasn’t any better off, the veterans had first choice on a lot of things. Which they should have had, and I had a very difficult time getting started again after the war. There was jobs that didn’t pan out, it took me a long time to get going.
Life is not easy, at least for most people, I don’t think it ever will be. In my opinion there’s little an individual can do. All you can do is try to live within your means, try to accumulate a little ahead of the game, and if and when you do, try to spend it wisely until things get better. I’m a firm believer in this country and the opportunities it gives its citizens, and there’s no better place in the world in my opinion, and I don’t like to hear anything contrary to the U.S.A.
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