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|   Dorothy Joan HarrisQ: Why did you decide to write about the Depression? DJH: I chose the Depression because I can actually remember those years. Though I was a little girl in 1939, I can remember men like Will coming to our door and asking if there was some work they could do in return for a meal. And I can remember my grandmother, who lived with us, saying that our house must be marked in some way. Of course, like Ellen, I went outside and looked and looked but couldn't find any mark. And I watched my grandmother "turn" a dress, taking it all apart and sewing it back together with the unfaded side out, just as Ellen's mother did. Q: What kind of research did you do to find out about the world Ellen lived in? DJH: Though I remembered many things about the 1930s myself, I did read several books on the Depression years in Canada. Among other facts, I learned that the Depression lasted for a longer time in Vancouver, and so I chose to set my story there. Q: What do you think was most different about life in that time? DJH: Though Ellen's time was only sixty years ago, life today is so very different. I sometimes imagine my mother or grandmother in my house and think how amazed they would be by my washer and dryer, big refrigerator, automatic gas furnace, and television set. My grandmother was very strict and didn't approve of my going to the movies occasionally -- I wonder what she would have thought of a television screen showing movies right inside the living room! My mother was a fine musician, and I often think of how delighted she would be listening to tapes and CDs on my stereo. My father, I'm sure, would be most amazed that I have my own car -- and know how to drive it. Back in the Depression years, everyone reused and recycled everything not because of concerns about the environment, but to save money. Nothing was ever thrown out, and I still often write my shopping lists on the back of old envelopes. (Ann Landers admits that she does this too!) Q: Do you think that Ellen would be a very different person if she were alive today? DJH: Ellen would not be very different -- except she would be an even more avid reader, now that there are so many books written for young readers. Since she was very curious about things (like just why Canada was in a Depression), she would probably want to use the Internet to find out things. She showed that she was brave, going off to Hobo Jungle by herself to return Will's photo to him. But today, she might have to be more careful about going somewhere like that on her own. Q: Would you want to go back and live in that time yourself? DJH: Well, I did live in that time myself, and found much to enjoy in life. But probably the thing I would miss the most if I went back would be the clean central heating in our houses. Nowadays, when I just move a dial on the thermostat to get heat, I still remember what hard work it was to shovel coal into a furnace and carry out ashes, and how dirty the coal fumes were. Also, back then a simple case of tonsillitis would keep you in bed for weeks, since there were no antibiotics. I had pneumonia as a baby and was in the hospital for six weeks and very nearly died. So I would not want to have to live again without the miracle of antibiotics. |
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