We take for granted the use of mechanized equipment for large scale snow removal. That has not always been the case. If we go back even as far as the Great Depression of the 1930s it still took muscle power to move snow off the railroad tracks.
The railroad maintained special trains that included sleeping and cooking cars. The train went down the track stopping wherever it encountered large snow banks. The crews would exit the train and shovel off the tracks.
The workers could rest in the heated sleeping cars and get a hot meal in the cook car. I’m sure the trip was comfortable if not luxurious. The work would have been hard and cold but for many men it might have been the only work available.
In 1935, one of the years the economy was improving, the unemployment rate fell to about 20 percent. That means one out of five of the workers was looking for work, any work.
               And keep in mind that was after things had gotten better for a couple of years.
               Since 1929 40 percent of all the banks in the United States had closed their doors. The stock market had lost about 80 percent of its value and farm prices had dropped by more than half.
               The economy had found a way to impact the lives of almost everyone in the United States.
               Programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration helped people make ends meet. Average wages for these programs were about $10 per week but that wage went a lot further back then.
               The national average for a pound of hamburger was a whole 12 cents and a gallon of gas cost a dime.
               You could buy a new Studebaker car for less than $700. Of course you could step up to a Nash Super 8 for just under a grand.
               And while we were trying to hold it together in the United States the world was changing.
               The German economy had fully recovered from the depression due to the deficit spending required to build the war machine of Adolf Hitler. And Japan, Italy and Germany had made a pact to cooperate which turned out really not to be a good thing.
               And while the Americans dealt with a bad economy and lousy weather in 1936 there was one high point.
               Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The event had been intended as a showcase for the superiority of the German people. Instead an American outran and out jumped the world.
               The Olympics occurred in late July and early August of 1936. While Jamestown was sweltering 100 plus degree heat the world’s eyes were on Berlin.
               They saw Hitler snub Owens by not congratulating him on his win.
               The world situation was bad, but it was improving.
