Memories from The Depression to Duet Garcia
By Maria E. Garcia
Mary Fisher Garcia attended Neighborhood House as a child during the 1930’s. Miss Anita Jones was the director of Neighborhood House at the time. Jones had trained under Jane Addams, lived in Mexico for a number of years and spoke fluent Spanish. Mary credits Miss Jones with starting many of the programs that became so popular with the kids that attended Neighborhood House.
She remembers Miss Jones as being very strict, but she was also someone you could go to if you had a problem. Mary, like many of the other people I have interviewed, remembers the big fruit truck delivering fruit to the neighborhood and parking in the alley behind Neighborhood House. Word of the free fruit would spread quickly throughout the neighborhood. Free fresh fruit was clearly not taken for granted in the 30’s. [Read more…]