JoAnn A. Grote - Annas Fight for Hope: The Great Depression

While Fred and Annas families are fictional, events in this book are based on historical fact. During the Great Depression, many families could no longer feed all their children. Parents had to ask their oldest children to leave home and provide for themselves. Thousands of teenagers became hobos who rode on trains across the country, looking for work. Some of them were injured and killed trying to get on and off moving trains.

The Bonus Marchers, as they were called, actually marched into Washington, D.C., asking that they receive their promised bonus for fighting in the Great War. They wanted to get the bonus a few years early so that they could provide for their families. Against direct orders from President Hoover, General Douglas MacArthur ordered troops to attack the veterans. Some veterans were injured and killed.

And the Organized Unemployed Company actually existed. A minister in Minneapolis came up with the idea as a way to help men who were without jobs provide for their families.

To Bruce and Becky Durost Fish, editors

2004 by JoAnn A. Grote

ISBN: 978-1-59310-208-1

eBook Editions:

Adobe Digital Edition (.epub) 978-1-62836-186-5

Kindle and MobiPocket Edition 978-1-62836-187-2

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Lookout Design Group, Inc.

Published by Barbour Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683, www.barbourbooks.com

Our mission is to publish and distribute inspirational products offering exceptional value and biblical encouragement to the masses.

Printed in the United States of America.

Oh, no! Its gone!

Anna Harrington looked in surprise at her redheaded friend, Dot Lane. Dot was staring at the pennies in her hand. Whats gone, Dot?

One of my pennies. Mother gave me nine, just enough for the loaf of bread, and now there are only eight!

The tears glistening in Dots green eyes upset Anna. Maybe you counted wrong. Let me try.

Dot slid the pennies into one of Annas hands. Annas short, curly blond hair slipped against her cheek as she counted the copper coins herself. Then she looked back at Dot. Eight, she agreed. Try your pockets again. The other penny must be there.

Anna watched Dot slip her hands into the pockets of her faded green-and-white-checked gingham dress. Oh, no! Theres a hole in one pocket corner. The penny must have fallen out of the hole on our way.

Maybe it fell out here in the store, Anna said. Lets check the floor.

The two girls walked slowly toward the door on the other side of the room. They studied the wooden floor carefully. They knew it would be easy for an old penny to blend in with the dark wood or fall through the cracks of the wooden planks or slip beneath one of the many wooden bushel baskets that covered the floor.

The smells of the fresh fruits and vegetables in the baskets made Anna hungry. Each basket overflowed with something different: green beans, cucumbers, potatoes, celery, lettuce, onions, sweet potatoes, apples, peaches, wild plums. She ignored her growling stomach and kept looking for the penny.

Anna scrunched her face into a scowl. She waved a hand in front of her face, trying to chase away a pesty, noisy fly. Sticky yellow strips hung from the ceiling to trap the flies that liked the fruits and vegetables, but the strips hadnt trapped this one yet. The strips swung in the breeze made by the large ceiling fan that kept the warm July air moving.

The girls had almost reached the front of the store when a tall, skinny young man with a white jacket over his shirt and tie asked, Are you girls looking for something? Can I help you?

Anna knew he was a clerk in the store. Shed seen him putting groceries into a wooden box, filling a grocery order for a customer. Hope made her smile. Maybe he found Dots penny while he worked, she thought. My friend lost a penny. Did you find one?

He shook his head. Sorry. Maybe one of the other clerks found it.

Anna glanced at the three men in white jackets who stood behind the tall wooden counter at the back of the store. All three were holding a telephone receiver to their ear with one hand; with the other hand they were making notes in pencil on tablets.

I dont think so, she told the helpful man. Those clerks have all been on the telephone taking orders for groceries since we came into the store.

Too bad. Hope you find it. The man smiled and went back to work.

We must find it, Dot told Anna. When Mother gave me the pennies, she said they were all the money she had. And it takes nine pennies to buy a loaf of bread.

All the money she had? Anna tried to hide her horror at Dots words. If we dont find the penny, maybe your mother can bake some bread.

Dot shook her head. We dont have enough flour or sugar left. Its cheaper to buy the loaf of bread than to buy the flour and sugar.

Anna saw unhappily that there were tears in Dots eyes again.

Together they explored the rest of the floor all the way to the door. Anna knelt down so she could check whether the penny had rolled beneath the barrel of pickled cucumbers. Nothing there, she said when she stood up. I guess we better walk back to your house. Maybe well find it yet.

They went through the screen door that let fresh air into the one-room store and stepped out on the sidewalk.

Anna couldnt keep her gaze on the sidewalk looking for Dots penny all the time. There were other brick stores and business buildings along this street. The street wasnt busy with cheerful shoppers the way it had been a couple years ago, when she and Dot had been ten years old. The depression had changed everything.

Many of the stores were empty now. Their windows were empty. The buildings looked dark and unfriendly. Even the buildings of stores and businesses that hadnt closed werent very busy. There werent many people who were shopping. In some of the windows, signs read, No H ELP N EEDED . I guess the owners of those stores are tired of men without jobs asking for work, Anna thought.

They turned a corner and soon came on a bread line. The men were waiting for some bread and maybe soup at a mission. It was a long line, for the mission was two blocks away.

Most of the men who were on the sidewalks were leaning against walls or sitting on the curb. Some of them talked to each other, but most of them just watched the world go by with sad eyes in narrow faces. Some had a bedroll wrapped in canvas sitting beside them. Some had dirty flour sacks. Annas mother had told her these homeless, unemployed men probably carried everything they owned in those sacks. Anna felt sorry for them. Some of the men didnt even have flour sacks.

If I lost the penny near here, Dot whispered to her, one of these men probably found it and kept it.

Anna nodded. No one would pass up a penny lying on the sidewalk.

Dots shoulders slumped. I dont think were going to find it. Mother will be so upset.

It wasnt your fault. Shell know that. Anna tried to make her feel better. Maybe you should ask your father for the penny.

He went to Washington.

Anna stopped and stared at her. Washington! What is he doing there?