I have exciting news! I convinced my wife Laurie Stilwell to sing with me on this week’s song entitled “Who am I”. Also, all the songs are now available to download by clicking on the “BandCamp” link on the right hand side of this page.
This week’s song is written from the perspective of a man and wife struggling through “The Great Depression”.
The twenties were a time of wealth and excess for most middle and upper class families. They bought what they wanted (no matter what the price was) and lived where they wanted. Buying a house was hard and people were taking out massive loans that were sometimes worth more than they would make in their life time (sound familiar?). Nobody thought anything of it. They claimed that since the population and the industry was growing, so should house prices. This was not the case…
On October 29th 1929 (“Black Tuesday”), the New York Stock Exchange crashed. Prices continued to drop for a month thanks to nervous traders’ panic- driven trades. Businesses lost investors and had to shut down. Factories were closed because now their products would not sell at high enough prices for them to make a profit. People couldn’t afford the high prices of food and clothing so these industries also came close to shutting down. Everything stopped.
At this time men were the primary bread winners. The woman would do all of the domestic work (shopping, cleaning, cooking, sowing, gardening etc.), and the men would bring home the money to pay the bills. The women’s role as a wife/mother was way more demanding in those times. Imagine having to feed a family of 5, 3 meals a day without the luxuries of a car or a refrigerator. They had to go the market almost every day because they didn’t have a big 4X4 Suburban to take the groceries home in and they didn’t have anything to keep the food fresh once it got home. Not to mention having to wash their families clothes by hand and take care of the kids. While some people did have ice boxes and cars, most people didn’t have these luxuries.
After Black Tuesday, most men who at one time were able to provide for their family, no longer could do so. This meant that they could either send their children to work or send their wives to work. Before this time, only 3% of women worked outside of the house. The ones that did were usually some kind of servants for a more wealthy family or preformed some type of sowing out of their own houses at night after all the chores were finished. Most of these jobs were filled by black women and young immigrant girls. In these times it was looked down upon if your wife had to work outside of the house.
In this song the man is asking “Who am I to send my wife to work?” and the wife is encouraging him that she will “pick up some kind of trade, woman are working more everyday”.
I chose this topic because I know a lot of people can relate to it. While woman in the work place may be more acceptable these days, it is becoming more and more of a requirement to live the life that most middle and upper class families are accustomed to. I’m not saying this is a bad thing. Obviously, technology such as washing machines, refrigerators and cars, has allowed women to spend more time out of the house but what has this done to the modern family? Is it a good thing or a bad thing that both the man and the woman spend most of their days away from their family and their home?
In my opinion, I think it is all circumstantial. If somebody needs to stay home to take care of little Jimmy, then the woman should do it. I say the woman because I think women are more nurturing then men for the most part and are better at raising kids… Actually I think they are better at everything that comes with running a household. I am thoroughly impressed by all my wife does for our house and we don’t even have kids yet… I can’t imagine how amazing she is going to be then.
Anyways, please enjoy the song and thanks for stopping by!
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