The Times Are A-Changin’-There Are No More Bread Lines
Fortunately, a lot of Baby Boomers do not know about “soup kitchens,” “bread lines” or going to the “poor house” …when you lost your home.
As a child, I remember my Father pointing out the poor houses, where people went to stay when they lost their homes, before, after and during the “Great Depression.” I was amazed at how many there where and how they still stood there, vacant, as a test of time, waiting to be used again.
He explained how people lost their homes, how children and parents were separated, how there wasn’t any food for any one to eat. People traveled the country, with everything they owned in or on their cars and trucks. Looking for food, work and somewhere they might be able to start all over again. He told me it was a time that he hoped I would never have to go though but history had a habit of repeating it’s self. He was born in 1899 and he had seen many changes in his life time.
I remember sitting in the car, that day, feeling very small, watching Pennsylvania landscape go by, thinking how lucky I was, that I had parents who would protect me from famine, homelessness and would never let me go to an orphanage or foster home.
There are still “soup kitchens” in America, but they are not run by the government but by churches and individuals. The holidays will be upon us soon. Make sure you remember them or even work in them. And count yourself lucky.
We have started an new century and many people are losing their homes to foreclosure. Renters are also affected by losing their rented homes, to foreclosure, Those who thought they were safe (renters), in a time of foreclosures…have found that they, as renters are just as vulnerable, if not more so, then actual home owners. Because investors are losing their rental properties as well.
Homelessness is a huge problem in America. I watch people walk or drive past them every day with closed eyes, hoping they won’t notice them, hoping it won’t rub off on them.
I remember when we moved to Tampa, Florida in the early 60’s and I saw homeless people all over the city. Wandering the streets, sleeping in doorways, on side walks pushing grocery carts with all of their worldly belongs in them. When I asked my Father, why didn’t they go to the “poor houses,” he told me that their were no more poor houses. That the government no longer took care of it’s needy, homeless or hungry. I looked at him, watched his face and knew then, “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” as Bob Dylan sang in 1963…Here is Dylan in 2006…as you can see, things do change. Bob Dylan has always been one of them, with his music. For those true die hard Dylan fans…here is your Bob Dylan Website.
Bob Dylans’ Words to “The Times They Are A-Changin’ “
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
Copyright ©1963; renewed 1991 Special Rider Music
~~~~~~~~~~~
No one is safe when the banks go belly up. Pork bellies or pork rinds won’t save you.
***Photograph by Margaret Bourke White***
Originally done in black and white.
Bread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky
1937
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
Bob Dylan and Margaret Bourke White’s Books
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Thanks for reminding us of what we try so hard not to see. Pretty soon, this problem of the “poor” is going to affect people we know.
Hey, Sharon. I appreciate your comments over at my site. Keep ‘em coming!
One of the key differences between the Dust Bowl days and today is that the down-and-out were family folk who had no alternative but to hit the road. So they did.
Nowadays, when you see somebody holding up a “Will work for food” sign, do you REALLY think this is the same situation?
The height of irony is that we have WWFF folks camped on highway offramps here in northwest Arkansas. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. If you are down and out without a job, 99% of the time it means you can’t pass a drug test.
Homelessness is a tragedy. But homelessness + drug use = an inability to get a job that is one’s own fault.
Maybe I’m old fashioned. I’ve been through tough financial times myself. But I have no sympathy for someone who abuses illegal drugs and tries to make people feel sorry for them afterwards.
Hello Ron…truly good to see you again, as well…and thank you for the invitation to “I remember JFK.”
I do not have a clue as to why there are homeless people, but I dare to say that all of them are NOT due to illegal drugs unless you mean that alcohol and perhaps post shock syndrome from wars, chemical imbalances and the ability to cope with every day is an illegal drug…granted alcohol should be an illegal drug but it wont be in my life time.
I am not what you call wealthy but I can always share a bottle of water, can of food or pet food with someone I think needy.
Granted there are people out there on the streets corners, who scam you and probably make more on that street corner in a day then I do in a week.
But it is for my own self that I give…to repay the generosity of others, that gave to me. It is hard for me to see stressed or hungry people or worse, pets. Yes, call me a screaming Liberal…I still have heart and soul left, that worries about the masses.
Drug and alcohol abuse is an illness and not all recover from its vises.
I still try to help those who are unable to help them selves. I know the feeling because I have been just two feet away from those circumstances a couple times in my life and it was the generosity of family, friends, the Red Cross and strangers who helped me.
Well, let me get off the pulpit as my Father would say…thank you for the visit…you are always a welcome relief from the silent, who read my blog.
Southern smiles and world peace,
Sharon
~The Baby Boomer Queen~
OH…just a QUICK reminder Ron…gas was not $4.00 a gallon then either!
Smiles,
Sharon
Hello Anita…
Welcome back…I can not see you not helping someone who needs assistance.
I am sure that your heart is as big as your smiles.
Smiles,
Sharon
~BBQ~