Marge Zankl was born into a poor family with 10 other children in the worst economic time this country has ever weathered.
While her family happily lived through the 1930s she doesn’t think young people today can endure a recession the same way she did.
“They haven’t learned how to cope,” the 78-year-old Calgarian said, referring mainly to generation X. “The young couples today think, ‘I’ve got to have the best of everything right now because I deserve it.’ Well, no you don’t. You deserve what you can afford, and that’s that.”
Zankl said people need to realize the importance of family, like they did during the Great Depression.
“Family didn’t cost anything. We didn’t really think we were poor because we had a great life. We always got a new pair of shoes in September when we went back to school, but by the end of June, the shoes would be worn out so we went barefoot all summer.
“We thought we went barefoot because we liked to, but in actuality it was because we couldn’t afford new shoes.”
Betty McHugh, 77, said when you don’t have anything else, you become closer with those around you.
“I think people today will learn the value of family and also the value of being a good employee. Employers will finally have employees that do an actual day’s worth,” she said.
Rahul Bali, 21, disagrees with the way people who lived through the Great Depression view how society copes today.
“They had their own methods and ideologies,” he said. “We of the younger and newer era have our own. The old folks need to understand that no one taught them how to cope with it and they did fine and they should let us do it in our own way.”
