1942: SONNY SAXTON AND TOMMY GLOVER

I colored the above formerrly gray scale photo using PhotoShop.

Over these many years, I have often recalled my years as a boy growing up during the "Great Depression." I was born in 1933, right in the cusp of that horrible economic disaster. The Glover family was hit very hard by that national economic disaster. The Glover family was on the "relief" rolls in Hamilton Township for a number of years, making weekly visits to Colonial Fire House on Liberty Street for our weekly "dole" of dried prunes, dried apples, flour, and other staples. By 1942, things were beginning to look up. Even though I was still wearing my older brother Bud's knickers as seen in the photo above, we were slowly moving into a more prosperous era. Re-telling these stories in my numerous public speaking programs, I have almost always had one or more of the attendees make the observation that we were poor, but didn't know it. How very true. When I think of how my mom had to eke out nutritious food for us with WWII rationing and the financial constraints we endured, a tear comes to my eyes.

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COMMENT FROM Ralph Lucarella:

WELL TOM, YOU AND YOUR FAMILY AND ONLY GOD KNOWS HOW MANY OTHERS WENT THROUGH THAT SAME PERIOD. MY FATHER HELPED BUILD JUNIOR 2 WHILE WORKING FOR ONLY A FOOD ORDER. YOU CAN ONLY USE THAT PAYMENT FOR FOOD. SO THE ONLY OTHER MONEY CAME FROM RELIEF. NOT UNTIL MY DAD WENT BACK TO HIS REGULAR JOB WERE WE ABLE TO GET THINGS WE NEEDED. THAT LASTED FOR ALMOST 10 YEARS WHILE I WAS A TEENAGER. I NEVER HAD A BICYCLE OR A CHANCE TO PLAY AN INSTRUMENT, LIKE MY BROTHER. SO ALL I DID WAS PLAY BALL AT WETZEL FIELD. THAT WAS ONE OF THE REASONS HOW I WON THAT BATTING TITLE IN THE TWILIGHT LEAGUE IN 1937. BUT WE ENDURED, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE AND EVERYTHING WORKED OUT FINE IN THE LATTER YEARS.

BEST REGARDS.