On this day Great-grandmother Lucia Maria is born in Arnara, Italia. She emigrated to America in 1919 with my five year old grandfather, joining her husband and brother-in-law in Williamsport in a house on Dove Street.
Lucia was remembered by many for feeding hobos during the Depression, but I always found this story to be a little suspect. It was always nice to hear the stories of Lucia's charity, but by 1930 she was a young widow with four children - could she possibly feed the homeless when her own circumstances were so tight? And how exactly did an immigrant woman, who barely spoke English, find the hobos in the first place?
After 30 years, and through the magic of Google Maps, I'm willing to concede the people who actually knew Lucia were not just handing down a romantic fairy tale of her benevolence. Just a few short blocks from my great-grandmother's house is a railroad track. It would appear the hobos came to her.
Women and the Great Depression
from History Now
Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression [DAILY LIFE IN THE US 1920-1940]
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