Serendipity

About the Book

The Roaring Twenties came to an abrupt halt with the Stock Market Crash of '29 and the Great Depression of the 30's.  Never mind that the adult world faced disaster, unemployment, payless paydays, breadlines and hoboes.  The children of that era ignored most of that.  Taking life as they found it, they went about their own business of growing up with little thought of catastrophe.  For the children, there were many comforts to be found, many adventures to encounter.

Nostalgia, nostalgia is the theme of this warm-hearted view of some of those adventures children did find in the thirties and forties in the big city of Chicago.  This  experience is told in stories, anecdotes and events.  This is a time that cannot be completely recaptured.  But the flavor of that time is in this book.  It sees that bygone era as a satisfying time for a child, never mind the difficulties grownups might have had.  The era is  recalled through pleasant memories.

The manuscript is a personal/family story.  It starts  with a setting of place.  It gives a feel of the busy city as seen by its children in personal stories of exploration and activities.  The descriptions of family, playmates and adult friends are interwoven with incidents and experiences during those years.  Here are the simple pleasures discovered day by day and year by year in life centered around the business of being children and making the most of it.

Those yesterdays come alive as one girl's parents and siblings are introduced and described.  The writer's own reflections lead to a summary of the end of World War II.  That war had finished the time of growing up.  The times of childhood and adolescent years was shaped and fused by that war.  In the end it broke down time and place and left the  children of the Great Depression in an adult world, ready to face the oncoming host of Baby Boomers.

See in this book why the Depression children learned about money.  If adults inhabited a world where salaries of fathers (and perhaps very occasionally mothers) came sometimes in the form of scrip and bus tokens, so be it.  Parents might need tokens to get to work, but  the children could turn tokens into cash, at a time when a penny spent at the local Mom and Pop store could yield a handful of candy.

If Mother was having a baby, it was only part of life that the children walked over to the nearby hospital, unaccompied, to vivit the maternity nursery.  Foreseen is forewarned.

If hoboes could wander at will singing the songs of the railroads, it was clear, at least to six or seven year olds, that they could disappear for several hours without telling of their plans.  What if it turned Dad frantic trying to find two happy adventurers watching Shirley Temple at the nearby movie house.

If any friend was so fortunate as to get one whole dollar for a birthday, it was taken for granted it was part of a seven year old friends mission to accompany her to the postoffice just up the street to open a postal savings account.  This episode had the blessing of adults since learning to save was considered vital by parents.  And the post office was only one block away.

 After such early tryouts, by ten or eleven the whole city, from downtown museums, to distant swimming pools, to Comiskey Park belonged to the intrepid...

About the Author

Regina Milligan was raised in a closeknit family. She had three brothers. A family of four children was considered large for Depression times. Following the end of World War II she married and raised a large family with her husband John. This was the era of the birth of the Baby Boomers. The difference in childhood experriences helped make the new generation interested in what they called "the olden days." However, those early days were alive and well in the memories of the "depression babies." Another phrase adopted by the feisty young ones was, "tell us about 'the old fogities' and what they did." Now, in later years she is often asked by children and grandchildren about her growing up years and her early times. She has told the stories in this book many times, getting enjoyment from doing so, and has seen the enjoyment of her sudience. Now she has collected the tales of those years to share with a broader circle through a written, rather than an oral, account.