Depression Gals

Mine is probably the last generation that lived with stay-at-home moms. And although one of the moms in our neighborhood was an artist, none of the other moms felt they had to "do" anything creative. Their creativity was found in their chocolate mayonnaise cakes, their Hungarian goulash, or their chicken soup. Once in a while, the moms read. I have often wondered if they stumbled upon the "Claudia" series, by Rose Franken.

Rose Franken was born in 1895 and died in 1988. Her most famous literary creation, Claudia, is someone I have a perfect picture of in my mind. She is not beautiful, but men can't stop looking at her. At 18,she goes to her first party and 25 year old David Naughton, a handsome architect from a wealthy, social Manhattan family, falls immediately in love with her. They marry within weeks. From day one, David insists that Claudia have household help. Claudia doesn't cook, change diapers, clean, have hobbies, or do charity work, but she has always wanted to be an actress. Naturally, she just happens to meet a producer and voila! She is starring in a play. And gets rave reviews! But she turns her back on all of it to go home to David and the children. Claudia has many tragedies. She loses her beloved mother, has a miscarriage, sees David off to WWII, helps David recover from TB, and endures the accidental death of a son. But through it all, Claudia is strong, stoic, sassy, and wise. The Claudia books are escapist literature, and as delicious as a hot fudge sundae. The series of eight novels took place from the late 1930's to the early 1950's.

I wonder if the neighborhood moms might also have read "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck? This truly American novel, published in 1939, covers some of the same time period as the early "Claudia" books. While Claudia is in Hollywood buying an evening gown she believes is $4.95 (it is actually $495,and no, David doesn't get mad at her), Ma Joad and Rose of Sharon are loading up anything they can carry on the truck that will take the entire Joad family from their former Oklahoma farm to the dream world that is California. The story of the Joads is the story of American ingenuity and survival.

I had a grandmother who was a lot like Ma. She raised four sons in the depths of the Depression. When I was old enough to know her, I realized that she always looked out for those less fortunate. When our family gave her a birthday gift, she immediately told us who she was going to give it to...someone who really needed it. I wish I had asked her some questions, but children don't think about the past, and all I have now is a photo of her with her mother looking proud of my dad as he graduates from high school.

"Grapes of Wrath", which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940, has a wonderful companion book in "The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl" by Timothy Egan. Egan's book was the 2006 winner in the non-fiction category of The National Book Awards. In this compelling account of the people who stayed in the dust storm stricken areas, rather than flee to California, Egan presents stories of courage, strength, and heartbreak. I was so moved by this book that on one of our New Mexico trips, we took a detour to the Texas area that Egan wrote about.

The glamour of Claudia, the determination of Ma Joad, the persistence of the real women who lived through the dust bowl, and my own poor but generous grandmother...American women in the depression are wonderful characters to read about and admire.