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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

learn. So I ended up, and I'll tell you when I came in for the union, to be writing.

Q:

Socially it was just hanging out with the guys, playing sports?

Foner:

Hanging out with the girls, the guys, very few girls, very few, not going out with girls really, because sissies went out with girls. Girls were separate. You looked at themand talked with them, but mostly not.

Q:

I'm groping for anything else. It's the height of the Depression, and you're bouncing along happily.

Foner:

The Depression was passing us by, I think. It's there. And I bet you if you talk to three other people on the same block, you'll probably get three different other stories.

Q:

But this was your experience.

Foner:

Yes.

Q:

So in 1932 you graduated from high school, and this, I assume, is going to be a turning point in some way. You go to college.

Foner:

I go to college. I go to Brooklyn College.

Q:

Why did you go to college?

Foner:

Your parents, you grew up to go to college so you could get a good job. What job? Nobody knew at that time in '32 what you would do if you graduated from high school. Where would you work? I had no skills to do anything. There were no jobs around. It was not merely that, but only bums didn't go to college. You know, it was ordained that you were going to go to college, that your parents were going to help you go to college if you couldn't do it yourself. So we went to a public college that didn't cost money, and we really earned our keep, whether it was an NYA job the first year or --

Q:

What's NYA?

Foner:

National Youth Administration. Maybe I had, I can't even remember, but I'm college and it's basketball, and I'm struggling in the classroom because I can't, it's not easy for me, and I can't devote a lot of time to homework either.

Q:

Because you're also working, right?





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