074
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Title
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074
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Transcription
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If Verna's parents moved back to the ranch, they would re-finace [sic] the loans on the cattle and equipment, but that meant that Verna and I would lose everything we had put into the project, and more too. Now our $9,500 was worth only $4,553. We had lost $5,000, which was more than double our origional [sic] investment.
This was good fortune in disguise, because it forced us to leave. We had gone broke in 3 years. The depression lasted for another 8 years, and many of our friends stayed on, and eventually lost everything, and could not start again. I was able to return to the University and get my degree, and start over.
Verna and I had both grown up in the ranching area of Nebraska. We were both familiar with the life, and we were having a good time. We had two healthy children, a boy and a girl. We had all the good food we could eat, beef, eggs, milk, vegetables, and fruit. We could even have all the fresh fish we could eat by setting lines in the river. We enjoyed our neighbors and the community activities, it was going to be hard to leave.
Now we were four and not two. Dale was born April 19, 1930, and Peggy on April 30, 1932. I thought for the first time of the bread lines that I had been hearing about on the radio. I thought of the people on Wall Street who were jumping out of 20 story buildings. That wouldn't do me any good, the only windows I could jump out of were only three feet from the ground.
The depression did pass, we did repay the money we owed others, Dale and Peggy are both old enough to draw social security. They have two brothers who are now grandfathers. We did survive the depression. I can now look back and only wonder what life would have been for us, if we could have held on for a few more years, and then be forced to leave.
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
