Cobblestone articles from March 2008

Cobblestone archives from March 2008

Editor's note.(Editorial)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Few Americans who lived through the Great Depression remained unaffected by it. Even today, when the 1930s are mentioned, most people immediately think of the Depression. was a decade filled with suffering. Many people lost their jobs, their...

Remembering the depression.(The Past Is Present)(Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My face was glued to the window as I watched two strange men driving our car away. It was February 1931. I was four years old; my sister, Margaret, was two. Our world was about to change. Daddy was a successful...

Strawberry picking.(The Past Is Present)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... When I was five, I thought strawberry jam was the best food in the world! So when Daddy asked if I d like to pick strawberries on shares with him, I jumped at the chance. It was still dark when we started for the strawberry farm. It was...

Firing, not hiring.(unemployment during the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Sixteen-year-old Gordon Parks--who would later become an award-winning photographer, film director, musician, writer, and activist--was putting himself through high school by working part-time at an exclusive social...

Depression slang.(Great Depression)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Can you match the five terms below with their correct definitions? Answers are on page 46. 1. FIRESIDE CHATS a. Family dinners in homes that had no electricity. b. Presidential addresses broadcast over the radio. c. Stories...

A new deal for Americans.(New Deal Program of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) inherited a nation desperate for solutions to its vast problems. During his presidential campaign, Roosevelt had promised Americans a "New Deal." The meaning of this term,...

Writing to the Roosevelts.(Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] When Franklin D. Roosevelt, in one of his "fireside chats," encouraged millions of listeners to tell him their troubles, the American public did just that. In the days following each radio broadcast, thousands of...

Letting in the light.(stock market in the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... On a normal day at the New York Stock Exchange, there is an orderly mix of buying and selling stocks. On October 24, 1929--Black Thursday--however, there was a stampede of sell orders but virtually no orders to buy. Stock prices plunged lower...

Alphabet agencies.(government agencies during the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... New federal programs popped up during President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration. Often referred to by their initials, the New Deal's "alphabet soup" agencies were charged with a bold task: restoring America's economic health. ...

Empty pockets.(wanderers during the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Alan crouched beside the railroad track. The freight train rumbled by, picking up speed as it rolled out of town. It was now or never. Springing forward, he grabbed a steel handrail on the side of a passing boxcar...

Dandelions for dinner: "I'm hungry. What's for dinner?
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As a child living during the Great Depression, you would have heard many different answers to the question above. You might have eaten dandelion greens, pork belly meat, canned tomatoes, or nothing at all. One of the...

Did you know?(Great Depression facts)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's near ideas for recovery included setting up a toy-lending program. Children could borrow a different toy every fear weeks just the way they borrowed books from a public...

Eyes, soul, voice.(artists of the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Great Depression was a time of enormous human suffering. Generations of Americans have read about it in books and magazines, which describe bread lines and bank closures. But these facts can t adequately portray...

Crack the hobo code.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Could you survive as a hobo? First you'd need to know the secret language! These "nomads of the Depression" used dozens of symbols to warn, encourage, or simply direct fellow wanderers where to go. Although some symbols had multiple meanings,...

'Baked out and broke'.(migrant farmers in the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While the nation was just trying to get by during the Great Depression, nature dealt a second devastating blow. Years of land misuse on the Great Plains--cattle grazing and row planting--had created the potential for...

On the move.(African Americans in the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lynchings. Discrimination. Injustice. At the turn of the 20th century, 90 percent of all African Americans were living in the South and facing issues such as these--issues that threatened not only their quality of...

Where in the USA?
March 1, 2008... New Deal programs got millions of Americans back to work. Agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed workers directly. Others, such as the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA),...

That's entertainment!(entertainment in the Great Depression)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Walt Disney's short animated film Three Little Pigs, audiences watched the pigs work as hard as they could to keep the Big Bad Wolf away. The cartoon ran in more theaters than any other film in 1933. The "Big Bad...

Working together.(Going Global)
March 1, 2008... The United States didn't suffer alone during the Great Depression. From Great Britain to Australia to Germany to Brazil, economic difficulties were experienced internationally. Today, governments around the world recognize that we need to work...

Power of posters contest winners!(Your Letters)
March 1, 2008... In COBBLESTONE's April 2007 issue devoted to World War II's D-Day, we asked our readers to create attention-grabbing posters that might encourage people to rally in support of the U.S. cause. And, boy, did you guys impress us with your ideas...

My Wind Friend.(Your Letters)(Poem)
March 1, 2008... My Wind Friend A warm September breeze rustles through the trees, swooshing back and forth as it plays with the leaves. It skips down to the creek and sneaks up behind me. I turn around to see my windy friend wishing to...

A Journey.(Your Letters)(Poem)
March 1, 2008... A Journey A journey to become a man is like a trip through the desert. You must fight fears you don't want to face. But you must to protect your wishes and dreams, as well as the world you Share. You barely make...

Children of the Great Depression.(Books to Read)(Children's review)(Book review)(Brief review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Children of the Great Depression by Russell Freedman (New York: Clarion Books, 2005, www .houghtonmifflinbooks.com) uses actual photos, taken in the 1930s by the Farm Security Administration, to tell the story of...

Bud, Not Buddy.(Books to Read)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (New York: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1999, www.randomhouse.com) is the Newbery Medal--winning novel of a young boy who is sent to live in an orphanage, and then with an abusive foster family,...

The Great Depression.(Books to Read)(Brief article)(Children's review)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Great Depression by R. Conrad Stein (Chicago, Children's Press, 1993, out of print but available through libraries) offers a basic introduction to the 1930s and a description of the nation's life during that time. The text covers a range of...

Welcome to Kit's World, 1934.(Books to Read)(Children's review)(Book review)(Brief review)
March 1, 2008... Welcome to Kit's World, 1934 by Harriet Brown (Middleton, Wisconsin: Pleasant Company Publications, 2002, www.american girl.com) tells the story of the Depression through the eyes of nine-year-old Kit Kittredge, whose family loses everything....

Ethan rates it ...(Digging Deeper)(Website overview)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Great Depression: It was a time in American history when most families were struck by economic shock, grief, and hardship. Most important, the Great Depression changed American government, creating a variety of...

Weeds in Bloom: Autobiography of an Ordinary Man.(Young adult review)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Weeds in Bloom: Autobiography of an Ordinary Man by Robert Newton Peck (New York: Random House, 2005, www .randomhouse.com). Although Robert Newton Peck has written many highly acclaimed children's novels, the most...

The Great Depression: by R.G. Grant.(Children's review)(Book review)(Brief review)
March 1, 2008... The Great Depression by R.G. Grant (Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Educational Series, 2003, www .barronseduc.com) takes a wide-angle view of the period by exploring how major events of the early 1900s were connected: from the economic highs and...

The Great Depression: by Jacqueline Farrell.(Children's review)(Book review)(Brief review)
March 1, 2008... The Great Depression by Jacqueline Farrell (San Diego: Lucent Books, 1996, www.gale .com/lucent) takes readers through this period of our history, beginning with President Herbert Hoover's administration in 1929 through America's entry into...

On the web.(Digging Deeper)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/timeline/ brings you to the PBS Web site's time line of major events of the Great Depression. Click on other links here to learn more about PBS's American Experience film Riding the Rails, which follows the journeys...

Places to visit.(Digging Deeper)(Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York; www.nps .gov/hofr. Visitors to Roosevelt's family estate on the Hudson River can tour his childhood home, see First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's Val-Kill cottage, enjoy the...

From the archives.(Bibliography)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Following is a selection of COBBLESTONE issues that focus on some of the themes and events of the Great Depression: The Dust Bowl (COB0304) explores how the United States handled a devastating natural disaster that...

The bonus march.(Flashback to ...)(veterans of World War I)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] During the years of the Great Depression, several incidents reflected the tremendous frustration and unhappiness many people suffered in those hard times. One such incident occurred on July 28, 1932. In May of...

Brain ticklers.(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Give your brain a little tickle to see now well you read and understood this issue on the Great Depression. If you believe the answer is false, give yourself the ultimate test and see whether you can explain why it is false. Answers below. ...

A final world.(the Great Depression)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... During the Great Depression. many people learned to live without special comforts, certain foods, and even homes. What aspect of life during the Depression would you find the most challenging?

Cartoon connection with Ebenezer & The Colonel.(Cartoon)
March 1, 2008... OKAY!! I GIVE UP! Why did you drag us all the way to OREGON? To visit one of my favorite WPA projects, Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Timberline isn't just any old ski lodge. It was built during the Great...

Canine hero.(Creature Feature)(Rin Tin Tin)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Americans hoped to forget about the difficulties of the Great Depression for a little while by going to the movies, and one favorite entertainer was Rin Tin Tin. This four-legged action star made most of his 26 films...