1929

In 1929 Dad is 10 years old and remembers having a Christmas with fewer presents than before two months after “Black Thursday” crash of the New York Stock Exchange. Otherwise things in the small farm town of Port Crane New York went on through the Depression relatively unaffected.

1929 Headlines:
• The movie Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors. First Academy Awards are announced. The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, The Karnival Kid, was released.
• February 14th St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters rivaling Al Capone are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
• Two years after the crash of the Hindenburg the German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight which ended on August 29).
• Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
• US Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole. .
In November 1929 US President Herbert Hoover announced to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy. He promises "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage," but he neglects to add that many Americans will soon be without pots or garages. So much for economic optimism.