Harry Dee Memoirs

During what came to be called "The Great Depression", families struggled to make ends meet. In 1933 at the depth of the Depression, 16 million people - one third of the labor force - were unemployed. In January 1934 while sixteen years old, I was a sophomore, a Liberal Arts major, at Alexander Hamilton High School, on Albany Avenue and the corner of Bergin Street. My mother worked in Commercial Credit at National City Bank, 55 Wall Street, Manhattan. I walked both going to school as well as returning, regardless of the weather; ten cents would have been the round-trip Bergin Street trolley car fare. I'd rather have spent the nickels for licorice drops.