We lived right at Oakland and Kingshighway on Arco Avenue, right behind St. Louis University High School. The Depression was hard because money was very tight, and we were pretty poor.
A lot of men wanted odd jobs around the house, and my mother would give them a sandwich or something. We always had a little garden in the back, and she was generous. She would make them a sandwich.
We heard they were giving shoes out to the people that needed them, so somebody took us downtown and got us a pair of shoes. Instead of coming to a point or rounded at the toe, they came
straight across. Oh, like a box. Ugly brown. I hated them, but I had to wear them.
- Memory by Elizabeth June Harper, born 1948. From page 40, Growing Up St. Louis: Looking Back Through the Decades, by Jim Merkel.
- Buy a copy here.
Jim Merkel the Writer 