THE JOHN O'HARA SOCIETY
On November 7, 1931, publication of "Let Us Hang On To It." The New Yorker. Delphian.
The Orange County Afternoon Delphian Society bought a travelling soup kitchen to serve those who were hungry as a result of the Great Depression, which was in its second year. The suggestion is that the members keep it.
". . . . what I dreaded most of all, more than any other single factor, was the reflection on our community, that we should have anybody so - so, ah, sort of, ah, not impecunious exactly, but so un-self-supporting that they would have to depend on the community for their sustenance. . . . we have never had what some communities have: out-and-out public charges. And that worried me, disheartened me, to think that even in the time of a depression such a thing might come to pass. . . . You never know what is just around the corner, of course."
I believe it was Hoover who said at the beginning of the downturn that prosperity was "just around the corner," and that Hoover said next year things will be better was a thought on Irma Fliegler's mind as she lay awake Christmas morning 1930 (Appointment in Samarra).
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