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The Great Depression by Lee Cavin

Close friend Nancy Kulka loaned me her autographed copy of this delightful little book and I devoured it—with pleasure. It is about a young man’s life growing up in downtown Mansfield at the height of the depression in the early 1930s.

I grew up near downtown through the 40’s and 50’s so the read was a serious dose of warm nostalgia. I knew about virtually every place he mentioned. I caught crawdads in some of the same creeks he did.

When I finished the read I didn’t want to put the book down. Somehow that would break the spell.

Then, I noticed on one of the cover pages it had a copyright in 1997 and was published in Loudonville. I checked the phone book and—there he was.

Shortly I was treated to a marvelous conversation with an 86 year old fellow whose gravelly voice, with a smile at every punctuation mark, swiftly turned my read into a glowing personal experience.

We reminisced at length at our boyhood experiences which failed to overlap by just a decade or so.

Turns out he writes a column to this day in the Loudonville Times called “Conversations”. The most recent was number 1,119; all this the result of a temporary job he took there years ago which included a three year stint as editor.

Somehow I feel a visit to Loudonville coming soon. Do it forthwith he implied with that voice wrapped in a smile.

I think he has lots of other things to tell me.