Memories Of ‘Great Crash’ Relived Following Plunge In Stocks
The 512 point stock market plunge on Thursday brought back painful memories for desert residents who lived through the wall street crash of 1929.
Martha Patterson, 93, was 9 years old when the bull market shattered on “Black Thursday,” Oct. 24, 1929.
“I remember my mother being so upset,” said Patterson., who was upper middle class, living in Ashville North Carolina, and her father had just lost his job. “He went from being vice president to night watchman, and was happy to get the job of night watchman, because most people didn’t have jobs at all.”
“When the stock market crashed, I had just graduated,” said Sol Coen, 97, who was just 16 years old when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted almost 13 percent on October 28, and then nearly 12 percent on “Black Tuesday,” the day after.
He lived in Cleveland, Ohio.
“All of a sudden, my father came home one day (and) he said ‘no college.’ “
His dreams of going to the University of Pennsylvania were crushed.
But life in Los Angeles for Dorothy Perry, 93, pretty much stayed the same, though, her friends were devastated.
“My mother was still working at her own beauty shop,” said Perry. “My father had lost his job, but we did well — it really didn’t hurt me too much.”
The Great Crash was a sign of the Great Depression, which lasted 12 years.
Peggy Ivey, 87, remembered the rash of suicides that soon followed.
“People lost their whole lifetime savings, their businesses — every asset they own,” said Ivey. “Some people were quite wealthy and lost it all.”
But despite this painful stroll down memory lane — all four residents of Atria Palm Desert are optimistic about the future, and encouraged investors to do the same.
In fact, all four put money into the market as adults and said the tide will turn.
“I believe in the stock market,” said Ivey. “It’s part of America.”
“You (have to) fight,” said Coen. “You don’t give up, because things will always turn around for the better.”
The year 1987 was also a rough for the stock exchange.
On “Black Monday,” the DJIA fell 508 points — four points less than the fall on Thursday.
