Sam Ayres lives through The Great Depression and The Great Recession

April 25, 12:45 PMSouth St. Paul ExaminerRob Shirk

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Sam Ayres

Sam Ayres lived during The Great Depression, grew up in central Nebraska, was a gunners mate in the Navy during WWll, lived in California, and eventually wound up at my kitchen table in South St. Paul. We had a thoroughly engaging talk over coffee one morning this week.

Sam was struck  by the the  overall abundance of today. That was one difference he notes between today and the Great Depression of the 1930's. Well, he said, almost everybody in the family has a  car these days, for instance, the kids as well as both parents. It's not good or bad, but, as he rolled his eyes, five cars in one driveway...sheesh. He knew people that didn't own even one car. He knew a lot of people like that.

He continued by observing that we were an agrarian society and that back then most of us lived on farms, not like it is today. That's a big, big, difference. His parents had lost their house in town because of the economic meltdown and they moved to a four room house in the country where they didn't have the, ahem, amenities that they'd had by living in town. Sam was young with two brothers and they didn't seem to care. Their parents tried to shield them from bad news and circumstance about money and the lack thereof. They were clever kids, as most teens are, and they knew the score.

Even though they didn't have a lot, they did raise chickens, providing food all of the time. I asked him if he ever grew tired of the monotony and he laughed a little and told me that he was a kid, then, for gosh sakes, and it didn't really matter what they were eating. in that respect, teenagers have not changed one bit from the 1930's to now.

They had acquired a Shetland pony and Sam laughed a little as he recalled that pony and the hours of good times he and his two brothers had.

The Union Pacific Railroad ran close to their farm and they became a "marked" house. The hobos, as they were called then, knew of houses where they might get a bite to eat and Sam's parent's house was as marked as can be. The men would come to the house where they were asked to chop some wood for their meal. Sam never recalled a man refusing. He recalls seeing men riding the rails, mostly twenty or so at a time, but it wasn't unusual to see more. A lot more. One day he remembers they counted sixty or seventy riders on one train. This was a lot of "passengers". The railroad was a double track going east and west and around fifty of these trains would rumble through each and every day. The Bulls must have eased up for they were known far and wide as the meanest SOB's in the world to the hobos and everyone else.

U.S. Hwy. 30 ran pretty much right by their place, also. Hwy. 30 was the trans-continental highway before I-80 and the interstates were built and Sam's father owned a gas station right on it. It was marginal, though, outhouses in back, you know. You were welcome to use the cottonwood trees that were closer. There were a lot of cottonwood trees in central Nebraska in those days.

On a cold and windy winter night a truck pulled in only to find out that the driver was frozen. Not really, but he was plenty cold as the heater in his cab malfunctioned.C-c-cold, as Nebraska winters are.  Sam's dad invited him in to sit by the fire. The guy finally thawed and was working up the courage to get back on the road when Sam's dad offered him an old buffalo robe that he had in his station and that he can return it on the way back through. He returned the buffalo robe and became a customer for life.

In our conversation there was never any political discussions, no "New Deal, right or wrong?" discussions, nothing of the current American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The broad discussions and debates were left for others as Sam spoke of how life was then and how it is now on a day to day basis in South St. Paul. Sam has no agenda and it appears he never has. He lives comfortably with his wife Barb. His left arm doesn't work anymore and he doesn't walk real fast... but he has a million dollar smile and all the time in the world for a little chat. I'd like to do it, again, if he will, and I'll betcha he will.

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