Lessons of the Past, Fear for the Future

Those who remember the Depression fear its return

Geneva Spickard is pretty sure America today couldn't do again what America did to live through its hardest economic times and reign as the financial power it has.

Turner Hinkle agrees. We simply don't know how.

"I'm afraid if the next depression that hits is like the one in the '30s, we would not long have a democracy," says Turner Hinkle. "I don't think the government can let it be. People are too used to having everything handed to them."

At 91, she is plagued by arthritis of the spine. She is proud of her two sons, one who became a stockbroker, one who became a doctor.

But a woman who was never afraid during the Depression is afraid now. She is afraid for her great grandchildren and for the world they have been born into.

She calls it "cruel."

Then adds, "God help them."

Americans just don't have the backbone they used to, we've got rough times ahead for sure. I'm so glad I live miles from nowhere, as life in the cities is bound to get dangerous. Small communities are the place to be, where a few old fashioned values still survive. I would be afraid for my children if we were still in the city. With today's culture it will be every man for themselves in the urban areas, rather than neighbor helping neighbor as it was during the first Great Depression.