April 29, 2015

by Jerry Ginther
NP Columnist

My grandparents on both sides were born 20 to 30 years after the Civil War. They lived through two world wars, the Great Depression and the Korean War. The one thing they talked about the most was surviving the Depression years. My parents were both born shortly after the turn of the century; my dad in 1904 and mother in 1910. They, too, remembered the struggle of those infamous years. Their accounts of those hard times helped me appreciate how those struggles affected their lives going forward. The lessons they learned about thrift and survival they continued to practice and teach to their children and grandchildren even when times were much improved.
One of those improvements came about in the early 1950’s. As a first or second grader, I remember watching as the city crews cut deep trenches in Milton and McClellan Streets and laid the gas mains. Another trench was dug from the new gas main on McClellan St. to the west side of Grandma’s house where a gas meter was installed. Then, new appliances began to appear in the old house.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.