Thomas Cave's Tattoo: That Was Then; This Is Now

"Thomas Cave's Tattoo"

I've started a blog that discusses what I call the New Great Depression - the idea that the next few years will constitute a Depression era, and not simple recession. I believe that to understand it in that way will enrich it, and encourage everyone in this country to make this era a creative period, a positive time, an act of construction, and not a cause for panic, chaos and fear. This is a chance for renaissance.

If the New Great Depression produces art, literature, theater, film, community, and a discovery of human value, as the first one did, who wouldn't want to be a part of it.

I am here to barter, trade, share, talk, listen, discuss, argue, understand, make fun, and make peace with the lack of the old prosperity. It was corrupt, and corroded, and it's gone. The dead weight of spoils has been lifted.

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

"About Thomas Cave"

Mr. Cave is the gentleman in the photograph that graces this home page. The photograph was taken by the American photographer Dorothea Lange, who so powerfully documented the country and its citizens during the Great Depression. I found this photograph at www.shorpy.com, a website with a specialty in Depression images. According to Shorpy's site, the Lange photograph, titled "535-07-5248 and Wife," was taken in Oregon in August of 1939. The gentleman is described as an unemployed lumber worker. His tattoo is his Social Security number, by which he is referred to in the title of the photograph. A public records search conducted by Shorpy's revealed that the number belonged to Thomas Cave, who was born in 1912 and died in 1980 in Portland. His wife's name, Ann Kathryn, who died in 2000, appears on their tombstone, a photograph of which is appended under Shorpy's readers' comments.

Mr. Cave is 27 years old in Lange's picture.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

That Was Then; This Is Now

The New York Times has been running video features on its website, pairing the situation 'now' with the situation 'then,' which happens to be the Great Depression. People who lived through 'that,' who have relatives living through 'this.' A kind of Gen X meets Then X - unemployed young people whose grandmothers when young lived through the big D, and now - god bless 'em - provide interesting relief to the plight of those living through the New - don't say it - D. D2. Remember - it's the Great Recession, as per the media christening.

Watch the videos, though. You'll learn a lot, and be entertained, by what's - not going on. FYI, if the government taxes the executive bonuses at 90 percent, as per today's news, that 10 percent is still probably about fourteen times what you'll make this year. Before taxes. Happy almost April. How do you like your coffee? In a cup, fool.

Also in the paper of record, a sterling article on all the people who've decided - or realized - that employment just isn't the way to go these days. People are going into business for themselves, in the absence of employers. A great popular uprising of entrepreneurship. This sounds like the best news yet: an awakening, and optimism at last.

Put out the shingle. Main Street's back in town. (We would appreciate any and all stories of businesses you've opened - we promise to post each and every one of them.)

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

This just in. The Obamas are planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt's victory garden during World War II. Do you have any doubt that Depression-era homesteading is a style, about to become a trend? Or, that the right publicity will get your electric car farther down the road than a battery? (the other Obama story: Barack on Leno. A kind of late-night State of the Union. Or, the President Twittering on TV.)

Thomas Cave's Tattoo