Fourth of July in the Great Depression—"Quiet, Safe and Sane”

 It’s a question everyone has to deal with at some point, or many points, in their life: How do you celebrate a holiday, or something very special, when all other circumstances surrounding you are anything but celebratory? The editor of Bossier City’s Planter’s Press newspaper (J.C. Seigler, Jr.) was struggling with this question on the eve of Independence Day, 1932, when the nation was approaching the worst of the Great Depression.

At the height of the Great Depression in 1933, 24.9% of the nation's total work force was unemployed. Wage income for workers who kept their jobs fell 42.5% between 1929 and 1933. It was the worst economic catastrophe in American history. Seigler wrote, “It is of no avail to float into an involved and superficial burst of oratory about the glorious past of our nation, about the courage and integrity of our forefathers and the ability and steadfastness of the leaders of this nation during the American Revolution. Another July Fourth has come around, and like the July Fourth of last year, and that of the year previous to last year, we find our nation struggling in the web of an incomprehensible disjunction of industry and finance.”

He did manage to find a ‘silver lining’ in contemporary July Fourth celebrations. He made it very plain that he’s not a fan of fireworks, due to their potential dangers and because he is, it seems, a big fan of peace and quiet. An article in the same June 30th issue has the headline, “Independence Day to be Quiet Here.” He elaborated,

“National Independence Day will be quietly observed in Bossier City this coming Monday. No public entertainment has been announced for this holiday, and it is expected that Bossier citizens will observe the day in a quiet way. There will probably be less display of fireworks this year than in any year since the World War, and as the popularity of this dangerous amusement is constantly waning, it is expected very little, if any, combustible supplies will be sold.”

Editor Seigler revealed this same attitude in the earlier days of the Great Depression. In his July 3rd, 1930 editorial, “The New Fourth,” he wrote,

“Year by year the old-fashioned Fourth of July with spitting cannon and sizzling rocket against a blue-black sky is becoming more and more of a memory. The Fourth of July which small boys and girls awaited as eagerly as Christmas itself, a day of toy torpedoes, of celluloid-collared orators, and ice cream socials has been transformed into an Independence Day of quiet and dignity.”

When Seigler said a mother had lamented their children wouldn’t learn the importance of the fourth without the fireworks to emphasize the holiday, that didn’t concern the editor, who assumed that this mother was fortunate enough “never to have been forced to the tragic task of binding up mangled little fingers shredded by ‘innocent firecrackers’.” He admitted, “It is difficult for us who passed childhood in the old-fashioned noisy Fourth of July decade to remember that our Roman candles and ‘flower pots’ meant anything lofty and inspiring to us-anything but a rollicking holiday.” Instead, he advocated for a “safe and sane” Fourth that made the holiday a more reflective time, a time to remember the framers of the early United States government and evaluate if we’re still keeping “aloft the torch” lit on July 4, 1776.

If you have any information, stories, or photos about Fourth of July traditions in Bossier Parish or about living through the Depression here, we would love to add them, copies or originals, to our History Center’s research collection. Contact us at 318-746-7717 or email history-center@bossierlibrary.org or visit us at 2206 Beckett St., Bossier City. We are open: M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. For other intriguing facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok.

Images:

Spirit of ’76 Bicentennial Stamp, History Center collection. J.C. Seigler, editor of the Planters Press newspaper, urged readers in the 1930s to spend time on the Fourth of July holiday reflecting on the spirit of the original day of American independence, July 4, 1776.

Editorial heading for the Planters Press, Bossier City, Louisiana, July 3, 1930

Article by: Pam Carlise

FILL THE SCHOOL BUS -- with Sour Cream!?

Here in Bossier it’s almost time for school to start! That means it’s a good time to make a pitch for United Way of NWLA’s Fill the Bus campaign.  Each of your Bossier Parish Libraries branches has a box available through Aug. 2nd to collect school supplies for this program. The United Way will distribute the supplies to Bossier schools and students who need them. 

Did you know almost a century ago there was another program where school buses were used to provide community aid for tough economic times. In 1930, the first full year of the Great Depression, the Bossier Parish School Board had shelves installed in the back of school buses so the buses could contain not only students, but sour cream! That might sound a bit odd, but sour cream was very deliberately chosen for what would now be referred to as a “cash cow” project. It was a project designed to bring local farmers additional cash with little ongoing investment beyond the initial one, which in this case was literally the purchase of a cow! 

Bossier parish farm agent H.F. Spencer, as well as agriculture agents across the region, encouraged farmers to get a cow, or maybe even a few cows, which could then produce cream that could be sold as a profitable “sideline” in the slower season of their farms, like late fall and winter. Agent Spencer believed that the cows could “bring in a nice little pay check during a season that is often barren for most farmers. Though they cannot hope to realize any great profit from such a program, they can, by using sour cream shipping as a sideline, make enough money to buy groceries and other necessities during the great part of the year.” 

Why sour cream? According to agent Spencer, as reported in the “Bossier Banner-Progress” in September, 1930, “It is not necessary to have dairy barns and practice extreme sanitation with sour cream as with marketing whole milk.” He instructed, “Cows may be milked in the usual way, the cream skimmed off by hand each day and put away in a cool place, preferably in a tub of cool water. Then when the shipping day is at hand the cream is taken to the station and the money received for it.” The farmer could keep the skim milk at home “to feed to hogs and poultry.” Spencer admitted the price for the sour cream was not as much as for milk, but given that refrigeration was prohibitively expensive (and electrification had not yet reached all of rural Bossier), he argued that with the lower overhead costs for sour cream, the profit from cream versus milk was just about equal.

The August 14, 1930, issue of the “Bossier Banner” reported that,

 “As evidence of the interest in the milk cow, the Bossier Parish School Board held a special meeting Monday to discuss plans and ways of aiding the farmers of the parish in the marketing of sour cream.  All members of the Board were very much interested in the movement, and have agreed to equip their school buses with racks for the transporting of cans of cream and other farm produce to the high school agricultural departments.” 

In other words, the buses would pick up both kids and cream on their drives through rural Bossier Parish, and bring them both to school! Once at the high schools, the cream was tested for butterfat in the agriculture department and then shipped to the Claiborne Cooperative Creamery in Homer, which would pay by the pound of butterfat. 

The Bossier Parish Libraries History Center can provide an abundance of interesting facts about Bossier Parish.  Visit us soon at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. We are now open: M-Th 9-8, Fri 9-6, and Sat 9-5. Fill the Bus School Supplies will be collected from July 14 - August 2. Requested supplies include pencils/pens (black, red, blue), wide ruled lose leaf paper, glue bottles or sticks, safety scissors, and crayons. For more information, and for other intriguing facts, photos, and videos of Bossier Parish history, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on TikTok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/

Photo: Claiborne Creamery, courtesy of the Claiborne Parish Library. The Claiborne Parish Cooperative Creamery provided farmers of the region, which included Bossier Parish, a cash market for milk and cream. The Creamery opened on June 16, 1929 and operated successfully until the business sold in 1960.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

Shop Local and Win a Cow

Would a free cow get you to come out and shop locally? Well, it worked for many communities throughout the country during the great depression. After successful "Cow Days" in La Salle and Morehouse parishes, and elsewhere, local merchants in Bossier Parish started plans of their own. The first-ever Cow Day for Bossier City took place on Jun 28, 1930. The Cow Day project was to bring people into town and to get them to spend money with local merchants or "Home-Owned" merchants, as they called it back then.

The idea was to get people shopping and with each purchase of at least $1 or payments made on accounts earned the buyer one "Cow Ticket," a numbered ticket, entering them into the drawing for a live Jersey Cow or one of 25 other prizes provided by the local merchants and sponsors. The more tickets you collected increased your chances of winning. The local merchants had a sale or bargain day once a week until Cow Day for about six weeks.

But it wasn't just local merchants that were being promoted, "the keeping of cows, good grade hogs and chickens on the farm," was also being encouraged. A full-page promotion of the upcoming Cow Day gave a listing of all the participating merchants and a program for the day's events. The advertisement declared: "Cow Day promises to be the greatest event in the history of Bossier City." They expected the excitement to attract up to 5,000 visitors.

The Caplis Building, built 1927.

The program began at 11 a.m. with a parish flower show at the Caplis building, located at the corner of Cain (now Barksdale Boulevard) and Minden Streets. Then at 2:10 p.m., a caravan of about forty cars and floats in a parade led by Marshal George C. Huckabay took off. It started with the "official's auto," which included then-Mayor Tom Hickman. Following next was the entire troop of the Boy Scouts from Shreveport, including a bugler. Then, in a fire truck was the Bossier City Volunteer Fire Department, including Fire Chief Nathan Huff.

Taking center stage was the grand prize and the star of the parade, the Jersey cow. Following the cow was the Bossier Parish Demonstration Agent, Miss Lettie Van Landingham with H.F. Spencer, and the Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Club of Bossier Parish. And finally, a procession of cars and floats with banners of every home-owned merchant participating in the 'Cow Day' program.

Beginning in front of City Hall, the parade route was as follows:

"Out Cain Street to New Benton Road. Out New Benton Road to intersection of Minden Highway. Turn left and follow New Minden Highway to Hamilton Road. Turn right on Hamilton Road to Old Benton Road. Turn left follow Old Benton Road to Wyche Avenue. Right on Wyche Ave. To East Second Street. Left on East Second Street to Traffic Street and Thence on Traffic to Cain. Turn left at the intersection of Traffic and Cain Streets, thence out Cain Street to City Hall again."

During the parade, the Brook Mays & Co. Band furnished the music with Prof. Jeff Wilcox, director. At 3 p.m., the prizes were drawn from a large yellow barrel with 35,000 or more Cow Tickets. The first ticket drawn was for the grand prize, the Jersey cow, won by W.B. Grosjean of 601 Delhi Street, Bossier City. 

Due to the intense heat that day, they only drew about 1,500 visitors, less than expected, but considered the program a success. The program attracted locals not typically seen in town shopping and visitors from out of town, including many who had never been to town before, all hoping to win a cow.

Plain Dealing wasted no time in hosting its first Cow Day program on Aug. 19th. It was much the same as Bossier's, having a parade, music, prize drawings, and bargains, but their program started with an address from Governor Huey P. Long. That day D.S. Boldon won the cow. Plain Dealing was so pleased with the success of their first Cow Day that they held a second Cow Day on Oct. 9th, with the grand prize going to Mrs. L. Nugent.

What do you want to know about Bossier Parish's history? Or, perhaps you have important information or artifacts about Bossier Parish History that you would like to share. Donations are a large part of our collection and are vital in helping us preserve Bossier Parish's history. Visit, call, or email the Bossier Parish Library History Center for help with your research. We are at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City, 318-746-7717, history-center@bossierlibrary.org.

By: Amy Robertson