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Remembering the Great Depression

Remembering the Great Depression

Joe Antinori, 94: "I have lived in Tampa all my life. 1929, I'll never forget it. My daddy made a deposit Ñ 357 dollars. I took it to the bank myself, and two days later the bank closed, and eventually I think he got 10 or 15 cents to the dollar. Oh my God, 357 dollars would be 5,000 dollars today's value. You could buy a loaf of bread for 15 cents. Gasoline was 15 cents a gallon. People were desperate, didn't have no money, no food, no job. It was just terrible. The other banks, they opened, but if you had money left in the bank they only gave you maybe ten cents to the dollar, or 25 cents to the dollar, and it really caused a big problem with the people. They couldn't buy food. They had breadlines. We had a little better life because we all worked, chipped in. And it was a tight family. I never remember having a toy to play with, but I had a lot of loving and a meal a day."