Writing About the Great Depression in the COVID Era with Liza Nash Taylor

Writing about the depression era is certainly timely, with the pandemic, lockdowns, and shutdowns across the country, not to mention shortages. What similarities do you see, and how do you hope that your book could bring hope to those struggling today? 

You know, when I began this book in 2018, none of us could have imagined a sequence of events that would lead to shortages of necessities like toilet paper, or massive layoffs. I think that in the early 1930s Americans couldn’t have imagined enduring years of extreme drought, or that their life savings or homes might be lost overnight in a stock market crash or bank failure. I think what we’re facing is similar, as you mention, in that hard-working people have lost jobs, or farms, or homes through no fault of their own. There is frustration with the government, as there was during the Great Depression.

The Veteran’s Bonus March of 1932 came from a grass-roots uprising of frustrated citizens. It’s an event in our history that we don’t hear much about. I know I wasn’t taught about it in school. In May of 1932 a group of eight destitute veterans left Oregon, determined to walk, hitchhike, or ride the rails across the country, intending to petition President Hoover to demand early payment of their war bonuses (slated to be paid in 1945). As they made their way across the country they gathered support and notice in the press. By July, there were 20,000 vets and their families camping out around Washington, D.C. In a huge publicity fail, Herbert Hoover refused to meet with them. IN ALL GOOD FAITH is set during that summer, and I think the themes of resilience, adaptation, and survival are relevant to where we are in the summer of 2021.

The Great Depression tried our country and citizens, and I think that anyone who lived through it or grew up in that time was changed forever, with a hard-won sense of gratitude for the most basic things, like a floor under one’s feet or having enough to feed one’s children. I chose to tell a story about two women surviving and succeeding in this era by working together and adapting.  

Anxiety plays a large role in the main character's journey, but she's struggling with it at a time when mental health - especially for women - wasn't a subject that could be talked about, let alone treated. How does your character cope with her situation?

When I was researching this novel I sent a list of medical questions to my family doctor. He loaned me a physician’s reference from 1934 called The Modern Home Physician Illustrated, by an aptly named Dr. Wise. I decided to use that book as my sole source for medical opinions and treatments of the era. The category Mental Disease is allotted three pages of small print. According to Dr. Wise, “Heredity, State of bodily health, poverty, bad sanitary conditions increase incidence. Sex is another important factor. To mate with a member of the opposite sex is the natural destiny of the sexually mature individual, and the frustration of this design may occasion mental disorder. The incidence of insanity is considerably greater among the unmarried . . . Insanity is also more common among those who have been widowed . . .”

You just can’t make this stuff up, right?

Dorrit’s anxiety attacks are something I can write about from personal experience. I gave her a set of strategies—or really—rituals, that she uses to cope during panic attacks. She uses a sequence of self-calming distractions, such as counting tiles on the floor, and she keeps a list of triggers in her journal. She escapes into books, especially Nancy Drew mysteries, and Nancy is sort of her fantasy alter-ego. Her mother has always encouraged her to find solace in prayer, but that brings her no relief and she doubts the faith she was raised in. Being thrust into a situation—The Bonus March—where avoidance and isolation are not options, Dorrit conquers many of her fears through surviving unanticipated trigger experiences.

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Perseverance and resilience are major themes in the book as well. Do you think the struggles in these arenas were different for men and women, historically?

Absolutely. In the 1930s men were expected to be the providers while women stayed home. An unmarried woman was labeled a spinster and was generally disregarded by society. During the Depression, some institutions like railroads and the Postal Service laid off all of their female employees in order to make those jobs available to men who had families to care for. So I think that for men, the struggles of that era were tied to their self-esteem as bread winners. Some men left their families in search of work and never returned, as Kristin Hannah writes about so eloquently in her recent novel about the Depression, THE FOUR WINDS.

Women learned to adapt and make do with less, and then with nothing. Women entered the workforce where they could find jobs, like picking crops, and proved that they could work as hard as men. My character May Marshall is conflicted by the pushback she gets in attempting to revamp her family business to adapt to hard times. She struggles with being a working mother and her position in her marriage. She decides to act on her own intuition without her husband’s consent, and in 1932 that was a big deal. When we read history about the Great Depression we hear statistics, and we can see the devastation in photographs by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. It’s the photographs of those dust bowl mothers that resonate with me most.

Friendship is key to survival and health in this book. How do you think those themes translate in today's world?

In the past year and a half many of us have come to define our “pod” of close friends to quarantine with. That implies a level of mutual trust and concern that we’ve never had to qualify before. We’ve worried over sick friends and kept each other afloat in many ways we never anticipated. I think these times have increased our empathy and patience. I know it has mine, and I hope those small positive outcomes stay with us.

In my story, Dorrit is forced to ask for help and to trust strangers. She pools resources and works with new friends toward a common goal. This takes her out of her shell, somewhat, and she finds strengths she didn’t know she possessed. When she finds herself physically helpless, coping strategies that have worked for her in the past won’t help her. May finds a level of empathy with Dorrit that opens up some painful parts of her past that she’s shut away. In helping her friend survive, May is also healing herself. I like to think those themes are as relevant today as they were in 1932.

Liza Nash Taylor was a 2018 Hawthornden International Fellow and received her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. The 2016 winner of the San Miguel Writer's Conference Fiction Prize, her work has appeared in Microchondria II , Gargoyle Magazine , and Deep South , amongst others. A native Virginian, she lives in Keswick with her husband and dogs.

Getting Back to Life & Re-Entering the Real World

by Jay K. Hummer

The world is back! What pandemic? It appears most people have forgotten about masks, social distancing, and all things connected with COVID-19. In fact it has hit the streets in a hard way. I mean this literally, since the number of walkers in my suburban neighborhood has decreased dramatically. During the COVID shutdown, our quiet suburban street felt like a busy city block. There was never a time when you would not see walkers. Early morning? Check. During a rainstorm? Check. At all hours of the night? Check. During snowstorms? Check. It was amazing the number of people that were outside walking.  

Introverted?

Having been a pre-COVID walker in the neighborhood, I felt like a new kid at school-there were so many people I had never seen. This brought a surprising number of emotions. Meeting new people is always nice, but I was surprised to see the number of the new people who could barely look up and acknowledge my presence. As a personable guy, this took some getting used to.

At first I was taken aback, but as I ran into more of these unsocial folks I started to feel bad for them. I said to my daughter one day while on a walk, that we were lucky and not in their skin. Let’s face it, you never know what someone else is going through. And that is where I left it: the unfriendly walkers must be experiencing a bad day, and it was great that they were outside trying to feel better.

True to yourself

I did make myself a promise that I would be true to myself. Even if the last person I saw could not even acknowledge my hello, I would still offer that warm greeting. In fact I went a little further.

About half way through the pre-vaccination pandemic, I decided to move this issue a step ahead: I started to introduce myself to anyone who I did not know by name. This was great fun. First, it shocked people and second, I now had another person to address by name next time I walked by them, and made my walks more social in a time of social distancing.  

Recently, as people have started to return to the office, the number of walkers has diminished, almost to the point where it was pre-pandemic. The regulars are still there, butI only saw one person outside of my home office window during the rainstorm today.

So many of us have gotten used to the freedom of working out of our homes, I felt ecstatic, elated? for people, that they finally had some freedom. They could take a break from work and go outside! 

Re-entry tips

So now that many are shifting back to the corporate office, how can they stay connected to every day field trips?

  1. Decrease commuting: The first thing we must do is get the number of commuting days decreased. If you normally work five days at the office, try to negotiate with your company for three or four days at the office. This will give you one or two days where you can save commuting time, and turn that time into a fun field trip activity.

  2. If you are successful in negotiating that extra day or two to work out of your home office, you must commit to a start and end of your work day. I know this is hard, it is easy to wake up and get right into your home office. Big business has realized they benefited from having so many of their employees working at home. Americans are hard working folks, who put their nose to the grindstone and give it their best. Instead of waking up and getting right at your job, take that commuting time to take a walk, a field trip to a great breakfast place, catch a sunrise, or get a workout in.

There is something soothin about the water

  1. While working in the corporate office, or at the home office: Take a lunch break every day that does not include working at your desk. You can visit a swanky new restaurant or drive to a great spot for a picnic lunch with someone special. The great thing about lunch is that you get it everyday, on another day take that lunch break on the go, stop at the food truck or other vendor and grab your food then head out for a sightseeing event in the city that you work in. Most people have never visited many of the great sights in their own city. The choices are endless, and it beats going to the company cafeteria.

  2. When I used to work in corporate America, I would get tired at about 3:00 PM, out of pure desperation (so I would not fall asleep in a meeting) I held many of my afternoon meetings by taking walks. Let your team know in advance that you may call an afternoon walking meeting at a moment's notice, so they can keep a pair of comfortable shoes nearby. A combo work-field trip that gets your endorphins and metabolism going while keeping you fresh and literally on your toes.

  3. If you do have the commute back in your life, take the long way home and see a sunset. Ask your family to meet you there.

  4. Meet friends for dinner after work, or maybe dancing, or that karaoke/piano bar?

  5. Never, ever, ever miss your kids' ball games, concerts, tiddlywinks matches (you get the idea), there is nothing more important. If that big customer cannot schedule around this, can you imagine what a bear he will be to work with for years? And if your boss does not understand, that is also a big clue to find a new boss.

I would choose to watch my son pitch over a business meeting, any day of the week.

Let's go!

As your work life returns to normal, you will once again start traveling more. This is field trip bonanza time!  Going to the city on a business trip? The absolute worst thing you can do is show up to your hotel and go to your meeting as planned and repeat this boring process for the duration of your trip. Are you kidding me, there is so much to see. This may take a little planning on your part. I personally would start the minute I drop my bags at the hotel. What lays outside the doors for you to discover? Theaters, museums, restaurants, dancing, bike trails, walking, parks, water, sightseeing, people and more people! So much to see and do. Work is back and it is going to be a blast!!  What are you waiting for??

“I’ve spent my whole life blurring the boundaries between work and play. Being a fun seeker since childhood, I figured out how to take every opportunity to do the things I love—playing sports, eating good food, connecting with people, and seeing the world.” – Jay Hummer

 Award-winning franchise executive, successful entrepreneur, former radio personality, baseball coach, world traveler, and overall fun-seeker, Jay Hummer’s new mission is to help others find joy in their life every day.