History With RCS: Two Dam Good Presidents and a Little Boy
This memory begins with my father driving us around some of the U.S. Southwest during WWII. It was a big deal for several reasons, but for some reason I am remembering that gas, oil, tires, and tubes were all rationed as an important part of the war effort. Lots of memories are coming up. Many things were rationed and the lines were long. We stood in line for meat, butter, and nylons. I think that my father may have been combining the trip with looking into new work. On to the Dam story.
Soon we were at the Dam, with the car parked right on it. Then we were going down inside the dam on an elevator to below water level. I may have been as much as six years old. I was wide eyed, looking, listening, and, I with suspect, with my heart beating a bit faster than usual. On the big elevator were some workmen who were still working on the dam. My father was talking with them. I think that they were talking more about the war, the depression, and the president than about the dam. For the times a great new dam.
It seems we had seen some plaques telling of the great Hoover Dam. The workmen were telling my father that they called the the dam Boulder Dam. They were telling my father that they called it Boulder Dam because of the great boulders they had seen moved or blown up during construction, and because they though that President Hoover didn't deserve to have the dam named after him. The reason they didn't want the dam named after him seemed to be something about the Depression.
President Hoover was of the Republican party. The president at the time of our visit was FDR of the Democratic party. Both parties were different then from how they are now. FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, is the first president I remember in my life-time.
In an old newspaper, dated March 4th 1929, I read this: "Herbert Clark Hoover is inaugurated as President of the United States." A bit farther along it continues, "He announces that the government should assist and encourage these movements of collective self-help." That announcement makes me thing that he deserves to have the great dam named after him.
I do not remember those "movements of collective self-help." They are before my birth. Still they have a nice ring to them.
At the time of this first visit to Boulder Dam on the Colorado river, Franklin Roosevelt was president and it seemed most Americans were pleased with him. As we walked through the inside of the dam, I remember the workmen saying that they were proud of their work on the dam. It seems that they were pleased with FDR, but they did not mention his name as an appropriate name for the dam.
President Hoover was born in 1874 and died in 1964. Strange, I felt a downturn in the quality of US citizenship and US government beginning in 1964. Memories.
The year 1964 felt like a a turning point to me. A turning point for our nation too. A turning for the worse. It does seem like since then the money earned per week, month and year bought less and less by the year. It was at about this time that I began to note most people referring to our government as "they" and "them" rather than as "we" and "us." It somehow seemed that we were worth more in the 50s than we have been in too many years. I felt a bit of turn for the better in 2020 and feel it still in 2021.
Anyway, president Hoover was a Progressive Republican and raised a Quaker; all to the good. He was interested in efficiency in business and government. That sounds good. He was president as our country fell into economic depression. Tough on him and nearly everyone else. He lost some points because he supported the unpopular Prohibition of the use of drinking alcohol.
The task of writing this informal little essay brings many memories to my awareness. I remember much of the dramatic beauty of our countryside, of our country. I remember awful and great Word War Two, and much more.
There is a lot that is happening and being done now to write about. We are learning more of the story of humanity and about much else. We may be learning to communicate better. We may be learning that democracy consists of participation.
Maybe I will write more about our learning.
RCS
