Join us on Wednesday, March 25th from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. as Windsor Historical Society inaugurates a new “Timely Topics” program series.   As we experience economic downturn, thoughts turn to the Great Depression of the 1930s when the U.S. stock market lost 90% of its value, thirteen million people lost their jobs and four million people lost their homes.   What were the parallels?  What lessons from the Depression are economists applying now in an effort to stave off similar circumstances?  What was it like to live through those hard times and are survival skills from the 1930’s still applicable today? 

Bring a friend or family member to Windsor Historical Society to sample some comfort foods in the form of home-baked apple pie or crisp and cookies, and view the award-winning Riding the Rails documentary. Riding the Rails uses archival photos, letters, and oral histories to tell the story of desperate displaced young people who rode the rails as hoboes in order to survive. Their moving accounts depict the misery and loneliness of life on the rails, revealing some of the standard hobo trade secrets for survival.   Hard times taught these teenagers self-reliance, frugality, compassion, and strength. 

Then hear 15 minute presentations from commentators Andrew Walsh and Dan Mack.  Dr. Walsh, Assistant Professor of Religion, History and American Studies at Trinity, will outline similarities and differences between the Great Depression and the present.  Windsor’s own Dr. Dan Mack who vividly remembers being a youngster during the Great Depression will tell how his family survived it.   We’d love to hear your reactions to the program and your thoughts on economizing and survival and will end the evening with a community conversation.  Cost for the program is $6 adults, $5 for seniors and students, and $4 for WHS members.  Parking is available in the Windsor Discovery Center and First Church parking lots, and around Palisado Green.