Throughout this chronicle, the reader may find it useful to refer to the following:

• Three Generations of Fletchers -A Timeline
• the Fletcher family tree;
• my Celtic dictionary of terms;
• and a Celtic history timeline.
• American History Timeline
• American History
• History lecture series

Chapter Twelve: School and Adolescence (1917 - 1929)

• 12.1 Society in 1919
• 12.2 Generation 7 and Generation 8 of Fletchers
• 12.3 Uncle William Off to Fight the Bolsheviks (1918 - 1920)
• 12.4 The Winnipeg General Strike (June 1919)
• 12.5 A New House for the Farm 1919
• 12.6 Valetta High School, 1925 - 1929
• 12.7 Loss of the Celtic and Scotish Highland Ways, 1920s
• 12.8 Roaring 20s -Music of the Late 1920s
• 12.9 Fall 1929: the Great Crash and Catastrophe
• 12.10 Canadian Politics, Late 1920s Early 1930s
• 12.11 "Sky is Falling" (3): Fall, 1929
• 12.12 Family Moves Back to Clearview Farm

Chapter Twelve:
School and Adolescence
1917 to 1929

U.S.: 1917 to 1929

21 June, 1919

Having established his farming operation, built a new barn and brick house, Jim now became unsatisfied with simply farming. He liked building and wanted to do more in this field. Early in 1920 he aswered a man's ad in the Toronto Globe who had land for sale.

12.8 The Roaring Twenties: Music of the late 1920s

In the 1920s John fell in love with music. At ten, Jim and Ada encouraged him to learn the piano. By 1925, he was only 14, but he already played the piano and violin, two traditional instruments, but he had ambitions to learn two less socially acceptable instruments -the claranet and perhaps most importantly in terms of being able to find work --the saxaphone. Jim and Ada did not approve of the latter, but they were liberal and permissive parents.






Talkies

In 1927 talking movies were introduced.

In June of 1929, John completed high school and took up music full time. He got a job playing with a band at dances. John worked for $1 per night at dances, playing primarily the saxaphone. He also played the claronet, piano, and violin.



Every mornin', every evenin'
Ain't we got fun?
Not much money, oh but honey'
Ain't we got fun?



"There's nothing surer; the rich get rich and the poor get poorer." was considered the credo of the roaring 20s. Harlem was hot! Chicago was hot! (The Cotton Club was open to both whites and blacks and packed nightly.) Jazz was hot! Bessie Smith sang the Blues. But most of the best-selling pop hits were sentimental ballads ( I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time and I'm Just Wild About Harry), old-fashioned walzes (Three O'Clock in the Morning and Deep in My Heart), and nonsense songs (Yes, We Have No Bananas and I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate). Fanny Brice sang Rose of Washington Square and Second Hand Rose in the Ziegfeld Follies and Vaudeville. The Grand Ole Opry was transmitted on the radio from Nashville in 1925.


People were going places and singing about them; Chicago, That Toddling Town, Carolina in the Morning, Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, California Here I Come, Alabamy Bound, and Puttin' on the Ritz.

12.9 Fall 1929: the Great Crash and Catastrophe

12.10 Canadian Politics,
Late 1920s, Early 1930s

• Jim's house building business was dependent on the success of the Ford plant because most of his house-buying clients were Ford workers (see 7.8 and 7.10);
• the sale of the dairy depended on the economic situation (see 7.11);
• Jim's steel wheel enterprise depended on the outcome of the court case (see 7.12);
• Keeping his Walkerville subdivision depended on the economy picking up so that the town could get depentures to build sewers (see 7.13).

In a sense, Jim was indeed doing well in many respects, despite the setbacks of the steel wheels and Walkerville. This was until four additional disasterous events occured in close succession.

The first of these events was the great stockmarket crash of late October, 1929. Eddie Cantor, who lost everything, tells of when checking into a hotel he asked for a room on the top floor. "The clerk asked what for? Sleeping or jumping?"

The second event was that the investors of the Walker Road Investment and Improvement Company paniked. Despite Jim's dissenting voice, he was outvoted and the Walkerville site was sold at a fraction of its value and the company dissolved. Jim had lost virtually all of his capital investment. Some banker had gotten a great deal on the purchase of this subdivision.

The third event was a great fire. The reason this was as trajic as it was requires some explanation. In the summer of 1929 Jim had bought out the Maugh Lumber Company, located on Windsor Ave. This business included a factory, a warehouse, machinery and a stock of lumber. During that difficult fall, there was some difficulty with the insurance on the property. There was paperwork to be done regarding the transfer of deed, etc. and both the lawyers and insurance company made errors and were dragging their feet. It was at this one instance of time, Fall, 1929, that Jim's financial situation was highly vulnerable.

At this, the worst time possible, that there was a fire at the lumber yard. To add insult to injury, the insurance company said that with all the doubt and issues of fault, they would not reimburse Jim's company, and with the financial crisis developing at the same time, they never did honour any of their committments.

The fourth event was related to his company's dependence on Ford workers as the purchasers of his houses. In 1929 Ford closed factories and laid off tens of thousands of workers --including over 10,000 in one day. Ford said that it was part of the ongoing retooling as they switched from production of the Model T to new Model A. These were precisely the workers that had bought Jim's houses which were under construction. Unemployment skyrocketed in America to 4 million by the end of 1929 (and then to 13 million by 1933). Car production fell off from 5.3 million in 1929 to 2.4 million in 1930.

With the economic collapse of Fall, 1929, sales of dairy products fell off. Orders were cancelled and unsold milk was being stored and going bad. They were daily giving away or throwing down the drain most of their production. Jim's partners in the Glen Dale Dairy panicked and sold off assets at rock bottom prices. There was not even enough cash generated to pay debts. The company was dissolved.

At this time, 1929, the inventory of properties under development in Jim's Fletcher Lumber Company was at its largest, with several subdivisions and scores of houses at various stages of construction. Jim personally held $ 700,000. in mortgages owed to him on incomplete houses. The workers could not respect these debts when they were put out of work, and Jim faced the loss of everything. In a panic he mortgaged his own 200 acre farm to pay the taxes on all the "sold" properties he suddenly and unexpectedly was holding on to. Bancruptcy was simply not an option for a Scot. The value of everything he held was spiraling down uncontrollably. Despite all of his efforts, everything was lost. In the period of time from the summer of 1929 to the end, Jim had personally lost his forestry company, his lumber yard, his construction company the Fletcher Lumber Company, his steel wheel company, his Glen Dale Dairy, most of his farm, and $ 90,000. in cash savings.

And debts to father Jim went unpaid. House mortages, debts from lumber orders, unpaid steel wheel orders, debts from dairy product orders --everyone was failing to pay. Some would write Jim cheques, which would go NSF at the bank. Jim notes on one occasion a teller telling him: "Well, you cannot get blood from a stone."

Son John was aware of all of these losses, but could do nothing to help. John's showed little interest in any of these business enterprises. He was only interested in music now that he had finished high school.

Still, the alternatives were not ideal either. Windsor had been devastated by the changes of Fall, 1929. It had become "a ghost-town".