Juanita Haas' Great Depression story

By Ragan Robinson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: November 29, 2008

NEWTON - The story Juanita Haas' family passed down from the Great Depression was one of good luck.

An aunt related it to Haas, now a 73-year-old Newton resident, when she was young. Haas' grandfather was plowing a field when his father-in-law called with bad news. He lived in Cherryville and served on the board of directors of a bank. It was going to fail, he told them.

Haas' relatives had left their money from picking cotton in an account. After his daughter took the long walk across the field to give him the news, Haas' grandfather unhitched the plow, rode the horses to the car and made it to the bank to withdraw their money minutes before it closed.

The memories and stories she has from the Depression came to her secondhand. But Haas knows how the lean times stuck with her parents.

"Their whole way of life was about being very careful with everything," she said.

They used a paper bag until it was soft as cloth. When her dad splurged on a store-bought cake, it came wrapped in cellophane with a ribbon tied into a bow on top. They always saved the bow.