Dusko Condic grew up in Bridgeport, on Chicago's south side, in a family of eight children. His mother was a widow. He says growing up in poverty during the Great Depression made him a stronger person.

Giggi Cortese, 81, has lived in Bridgeport all her life. Growing up during the Great Depression was hard, she says, but she drew strength from her family, friends and St. Jerome Catholic Church.

This is a retold story from my father. My parents married a few months before the depression hit Louisiana full-force. But the remarkable thing about this story is that I see no way it could happen in this day and age with big corporations as they behave now.

My father was an employee of Shell Oil Refinery in Norco, Louisiana, where the entire work force was called in for a meeting. Management (local,I assume) announced that there had to be a change, but it could work one of two ways. Half the work force could be laid off with those remaining keeping their full salary, or everyone could stay on working halftime at half salary. But the men involved were to vote and management would do what they elected. In typical Cajun country fashion,they voted to work halftime and keep everyone employed.

I have always thought that a remarkable story, but even more so in view of our own economic times. Just like my parents, I will also plant a larger garden, make more of what my family needs, and, as I was taught, "wear it out, use it up, fix it, and make-do." We have a good model of how to help our families survive hard-times.

I hate to say it ,but some of these folks are just to young being born in 32 or 33 just is too young. They are retelling story's they heard. It doesn't mean there less real. When I hear NPR talking first person it should be first person. My mother and father Grand Crossing Chicagoans and well into their 80's they remember

Thanks for making the story of the Great Depression personal.

Listening to George Will, you'd think FDR had done nothing to make things better, despite how much was spent on the New Deal.

The fact is, the New Deal kept a lot of people from starving, kept things from getting even worse, and built road, bridges, and many other things across the country.

I had Thanksgiving with my 83-year-old mother and her 86-year-old sister. No, they don't remember FDR getting elected the first time, and getting ready to take office (the way Obama is now), but they were poor, and everyone they knew was poor, so they really didn't know how bad off they were.

And the values they and their late husbands developed from that experience were lost on the "people in charge" the last 25 years. Thus, we made a mess that our grandchildren will have to clean up.

Thank Les Orear for the comments about the union. My Mom and Dad have their seperate stories about living through the Great Depression. In Maine, my mothers side, Smuggeling was an honored profession. Tough and dangerous work done by many to support their families in big and little ways. Mom bought her shoes in Canada, and droped the old pair into the river on her return home.

My dad lived in Anacostia, across the Patomic from D.C. He worked for my Grandfather, a carpenter, building "Speak easies", (a secret false end to a walk in closet that could serve as a bar.

Dad led me, when I was a child up a staircase under the rotundra. We came to a locked door, and an armed guard appeared suddenly behind us (I must have been about 8 so 1960?) "What!" asked the guard, "Do you think you are doing?" Cool as a cucumber, dad replied, "I'm going to show my little boy where I used to play on the roof." "No sir" said the guard, rather kindly, too. "It's been a long time since there has been any access to the roof."

Dad used to shine shoes for the Congressmen and Senators.

He saw the Bonus-Marchers burned off the Mall (Tooday no one even knows what a Bonus-Marcher was)

For years my dad has been warning me, (and anyone who would listen) that the policies set up by F.D.R have been under attack by the right. Our government has been picking away at Social Secruity, Bank Regulation, Graduated Income Tax, Unions, our Manufacturing base, and anything Keynesian. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

Now is not the time for everyone to freak out because the government spends money to stabalize the economy. Now is exactly the time for government spending.

We better not let the car compaines go down just now; too many jobs are at steak.

I hope people like the good Senator Shelby, who is salivating to see the demise of unions, and car companies, will wake up and smell the coffee.

I think it is important to remember all of the aspects of these times, the good and the bad.

For me it is a reminder that no matter how bad it gets we cansurvive, we can find a way.

Some of these stories are not so different than ones I hear now. My mother came to the US in the 50s and her story is not so different than Mr Martinez.

My other grandmother grew up in the Depression, but even as they emerged from it her family remained poor.

Perhaps if we listen to the stories and retell them, we will find hope.