There are times that life does not turn out the way we anticipate and living is simply a bewildering adventure. We rarely know what’s coming next. Often, we surmise that “if I do the right thing then life will all turn out in my favor, exempt from dead ends and muddy detours.” But then somehow there appear situations and circumstances that arouse and baffle. Life comes as a surprise! We realize that preferential treatment does not come by simply doing the right thing. These moments challenge our faith and our hope. It is even more important that we learn to wait and listen to that inner voice that will help us discern the reality of our situation. Even with our puzzled complaints and God-accusations, we can realize that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Throughout the centuries are episodes in which mankind has fallen into ruin; because of self-aggrandizement with its glorious history, “scarred” and “devastation” become the operative words. These enigmatic images from our past are charged time capsules buried with messages for us, continuing to release insight, hope, and clarity for us today in a world that has no language for God and the purposes of God. With this in mind, we look at the long ordeal of the Great Depression of the 1930s. On multiple levels, the messages from songs of that era can forge a fresh vocabulary that gives energy and credibility for our day. Don’t be afraid to listen and let them speak to you!
After a period of reflective affluence in the 1920s, the American economy crashed into shambles after the stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929. The 1930s and the Depression burst the economic bubble and its attendant optimism. The Depression smashed into the nation with fury, and many groped to express its impact and meaning. Today, most living Americans have no memory or can’t relate to the experience of that period. Those who lived through this period recall vividly the frustration and fear that permeated America and the world. Many historians consider the Depression the greatest domestic crisis since the Civil War, like an explosive bomb dropped into the middle of the prosperity of the 1920s. The optimism of the previous decade was replaced by widespread pessimism and the anguish of struggling to put sufficient food on the table. No longer was America considered the “promised land.” As the Depression deepened, even immigration dropped. People’s values began to change and society was changed for decades.
The Great Depression of the 1930s had transformed the American dream into a nightmare.
View from the Bottom, present-day City Hall. This area was where many experienced the worst effects of the Depression era in our community.
When the economy plummeted early in 1930, banks began to fail, mortgages went unpaid and unemployment increased staggeringly. The residents of Murfreesboro began to feel the effects of the widespread Depression while panic also began to extend into the community. Although President Hoover declared that prosperity was just around the corner, things got steadily worse. In 1932, after the nation fully grasped the situation, Franklin Roosevelt was elected overwhelmingly in hopes that his plan would lead to an economic recovery. After assuming office, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program offered some relief and a national recovery began. The Civilian Conservation Corps was encamped at the western edge of Murfreesboro, providing employment opportunities for young men. The WPA (Works Progress Administration) workers laid the concrete sidewalks that surrounded the Rutherford County Courthouse well into the 1980s. As a whole the community, with its strong agrarian base, did not suffer like other parts of the nation, even though the market for agriculture products had dried up.
No doubt, the decade of the 1930s was one of hard times in the United States as well as in Murfreesboro. The Depression wreaked havoc on the physical, spiritual and mental state of the population. But, in spite of the hardships, the decade proved to be perhaps the greatest in regard to American musical creativity. Anyone with access to a radio could participate in it. Slowly but surely Americans began to rely on the new technology to restore morale and self-confidence, and relieve despair.
Strangely enough, during the Great Depression, when most were doing without luxuries, many would sacrifice to make payments on their radios. In those days, folks in Murfreesboro were exposed to a wide range of live music, comedy, variety shows and dramatic programming as a welcome escape from the troubled times. In addition to classical works was a style of American music espoused by big bands like those of Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington and vocalists such as Bing Crosby. These and many other performers were a part of radio programming exposing locals to the new sounds emerging in popularity throughout America.
The Great Depression drove down the average price of a radio sold in United States from $139 in 1929 to about $47 just four years later. The brutal market forces early in the Depression did not stop Americans from buying radios; by the end of the 1920s, one third of U.S. households owned a radio and by 1933 that number climbed to nearly 60 percent. In Murfreesboro, radio was a great entertainment value in a time when people struggled to pay rent and put food on the table. By 1933, the radio manufacturers had made major technological improvements that in turn allowed radio stations to reach more listeners in America and around the world. These improvements helped fuel sales; it was estimated that by 1933, 4.5 million radios in U.S. homes were becoming obsolete due to improved radio broadcast and short-wave reception. Radio sales in the early 1930s also benefited from “installment buying,” or buying on credit. In 1931, 75 percent of all radios were sold on installment payments, with the average radio buyer putting 20 percent down on their radio purchase.
A Newsome Radio Store opened on College Street across from present-day Pinnacle Bank on Oct. 12, 1929, just days before the Wall Street crash on Oct. 29, 1929, which plummeted the nation into the Great Depression.
In the spring of 1927, the NBC national network was formed, and WSM in Nashville became an affiliate subscribing to many of the network’s programs. This meant that the station could carry programming heard all over the country. WSM sustained a host of regulars in local programming, which included many of the “hoedown bands” like Uncle Dave Macon and the Fruit Jar Drinkers featured on the early Grand Ole Opry. Radio exposure increased the popularity of hillbilly music across the nation and sustained the Opry for another ten years. The music was reasonably close to what the locals defined as “old-time” or “folk” music. By 1935, as the Opry was losing much of its innocence and spontaneity, modern influences in musical style and sophistication began to bring increasingly professional and structured programming to the popular country broadcast.
During some of the dark days of the Depression in the 1930s, Uncle Dave Macon and other string bands suffered hard. Both touring and recording sales were drying up. Uncle Dave pontificated on the state of things by arguing that music and morale go together and that the hard times were caused by the decline in music and morals. He told one reporter, “A man who can’t enjoy music has no heart and very little soul. People today are drifting away from the old tunes, the real music. At the same time, they are drifting away from morals—one is the cause of the other.”
Is there some prophetic message that, if heeded, might augment our understanding and bring relevance and wisdom for our day? In modern times, we have tuned in, turned on and logged in just to connect and communicate with the powers of the Universe. The result is that we are feeling more alone and isolated than ever in human history. So what’s the point? Is there perhaps a reality that is far more real than what we can feel, see, hear or touch? Perhaps all along we needed faith in something outside our senses, that pervasive power of Love which comes from a God that sustains and will not let us plummet into oblivion.
Make time to connect, tune in and turn on. Make this time your highest priority. Make time to connect to God’s signal your heart’s desire. As you stay tuned in, this channel will reveal your deepest joy and lasting peace. You become a gifted conduit to the energy that powers the Universe, which is Love.
“Brother Can You Spare a Dime,” by Bing Crosby:
