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THE YEAR 1932
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Although 1932 was a year of deepening depression in which most of us young people had to be concerned for our very jobs, still we seem to have had a pretty good time with our friends as well as a few quite rewarding experiences. The latter is a great understatement for our most rewarding experience, the arrival on May 24th of Roger Phelps Craton. We'd talked all along confidently of the arrival of "Little Brother" and sure enough, it was "Little Brother" as predicted. Because of Roger's arrival in late May, we took no vacation trip, spending the summer in Erie, which was probably a good thing because our financial situation was worsening along with everyone else's under the impact of the business decline. But we seemed to take it pretty well in stride with no apparent evidence of panic at any time. Maybe it was because we were still relatively young.

Willie and Bab were in Louisville from January 23rd to February 28th and Mother was visiting Mrs. Landrum in Charleston, S.C., so I was left alone for about five weeks, most of which I spent living with Tom Perkinson in his bachelor apartment on West Tenth. However, I wasn't sold on the bachelor life as a result of this experience and was more than delighted to have Willie and Bab home again, and to return to a normal life.

My GE work ran the gamut between having virtually nothing to do to being so busy that I had to work nights to keep up. But in spite of the latter, things were slowly grinding toward as close to a dead stop in the shop as it was possible to do and still stay in business. One thing that kept me busy for awhile was an assignment to follow the newly developed thyratron with respect to its possible application to our work. I had other miscellaneous jobs which I shall cover but they were not productive of business in the immediate future. But, in spite of these conditions, I had much of interest to do.

As for material upon which to base this tale of 1932, I wrote 122 days of diary scattered through the year, which has been very helpful in putting together an outline. There are quite a few pictures of Willie and the children, which are included. And I have delved into my memory as well as talked to various people. There have been a few notes and notebooks here and there. There is a would-be magazine article I wrote in 1933 covering an experience or so in 1932. All in all, it seems to add up to enough from which to produce a reasonably accurate as well as comprehensive account of the year as we experienced it.

Forman H. Craton

Erie, Pa.,
October 17, 1973.