1.5 Teacher's guide: Father and son

By Kristin Post

Provided by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South

Introductory script

Part of the impact of the Great Depression was that people were forced to leave their families to find work. Men, in particular, moved around the country looking for jobs.

Preliminary questions

1. We heard earlier that Mr. Hyatt’s father retired in Cleveland. What was his father’s last job before he retired?
2. What were our predictions about why he moved around so much?

The recording

Play the Father and Son oral history excerpt. Running time: 1 minute 23 seconds.

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Transcript

In the late 50s there weren’t many jobs around here; not a lot of good-paying jobs and so forth. Coming off of the Depression years the economy hadn’t really picked up that well, and my dad just drifted from place to place looking for something better. That’s how he ended up in Ohio.

Actually, I moved back and forth to Ohio several times. My parents were up there regularly, but I didn’t like it up there in the big city — in Cleveland — near as well as I did out in the country. There weren’t enough things to entertain me in the city, so I came back. That’s how I stayed with my grandmother. She reached a point in time — her youngest daughter left home in the late 50s — that she was by herself, at that time in her sixties. And so I think it was 1960 I came back the first time, and stayed with Granny a year or two here. Went to elementary school at Barnardsville one year, and then went to North Buncombe High School one year. That’s when there wasn’t a middle school. You went straight to the eighth grade then, and I was in the eighth grade there. Then I went back to Ohio; then I came back. So I just kind of shuffled back and forth between Cleveland and down here.

Follow-up questions

1. Why did Mr. Hyatt have to move to Ohio?
2. Why doesn’t Mr. Hyatt refer to the jobs or work his mother did?
3. How many years after the “end” of the Depression was the economy in the North Carolina affected?
4. What effects did the lack of jobs have on Mr. Hyatt’s nuclear/immediate family? (his parents, himself).

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Related topics

• Search LEARN NC for more resources on American history, Barnardsville, Great Depression, Madison County, North Carolina, Stan Hyatt, grandmothers, schools, women's work, and work.