The United States Great Depression began in October of 1929, three months after Joyce Houser was born; and it ended in March of 1933, the same month that Helen Jones was born.
Helen and Joyce are both Odessa elders in their 90s, and they have seen more than most folks can imagine in their 90-plus years of life. This week, they visited the Ector County Youth Center to share their life experiences.
Dr. Joe Weaks of Connection Christian Church visits the county incarcerated youth each month, and this week he brought along Helen and Joyce. The goal was for the youth to interview the women and learn about what life was like for them growing up, what the world was like when these women were their age. They asked questions about technology and shopping and communication and transportation and diet. The youth were at times blown away by the answers.
They asked, “How did you travel into town?” “Where did the food come from?” “What was your first job?” “What did your school look like?” and “How did you call your neighbor?”
The women answered, “A horse and wagon,” “Out back,” “Picking peaches for 50¢ a bushel,” “1st through 8th grade in a one-room schoolhouse,” and “We got a phone when I was 13 … a party line.”
“What made it a party?” the youth asked.
Both women grew up in simple homes out in the country, in North Texas and Central Texas. They shared stories they had in common — first dates as a teenager, similar escapades of failure the first time they each had to wring a chicken’s neck, first cars they drove, first experiences of racial integration.
The youth and the staff at the Ector County Youth Center were engaged and enamored with their stories of life in the 30s and 40s, the Great Depression, and the time during the war. But they were equally captivated with these incredible women as they are today. Helen and Joyce are active stalwarts at their churches, St. James Baptist and Connection Christian, respectively. Ninety-one-year-old Helen volunteers at MCH three times a week, and ninety-five-year-old Joyce regularly helps deliver Meals on Wheels … to the elderly in town … all of whom on her route are younger than her.
“I’m just happy to do,” she says, “since that means they don’t have to deliver them to me.”
