Early Years in the Great Depression
My story began in 1934, when I was born to a German father and French-Canadian mother on a small farm out of Hammond, Minnesota. The Great Depression began in 1929. I was born in 1934, and between this time and around 1940, the depression left thirteen to fifteen million people in America out of work. Responding to that crisis, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created government funded, minimum-wage work organizations like the WPA or the CCCs. WPA would build and repair roads and bridges. The wage was twenty- five cents per hour, and most were very glad to get it. For a time, my father worked on those jobs to put a roof over our heads and food on the table.
My Dad was a farmer of sorts, but also something of a salesman. We didn’t have much, but it seemed like he was always selling something. We raised cucumbers on our little farm, and my mother turned them into German dill pickles that we could sell in town. In the winter, my father would catch fish through the ice, smoke them, and sell those too. Most of the time, his buyers would be people from the big city who had a little money to spend.
My Mother, however, had plans for me to become something more than a dirt-poor farmer like my father, his father, and his brothers. She wanted me to do well in my studies and make something out of my life. For my part, however, I was perfectly happy to walk with my father behind the plow.
There is where my early years and experiences began to unravel towards a path that I never knew existed - in Sales...
Many stories of my early years has molded me to be "A Salesman". I would like to share my story with you. Click here to buy my book and let's chat.
