StoryCorps: James Lacy

From: StoryCorps
Series: StoryCorps
Length: 02:18

90-year-old James Lacy tells his daughter, Jamie Breed, about his father's general store in Comanche County, Texas. Read the full description.

Piece Audio

Playing: StoryCorps: James Lacy
From: StoryCorps

Lacy_small When James Lacy was growing up, his father prospered by running a general store in rural Texas. But the merchant lost everything in the economic collapse of 1929. Though his dad spent decades paying off debts, Lacy says, he was rich in other ways.

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Piece Description

When James Lacy was growing up, his father prospered by running a general store in rural Texas. But the merchant lost everything in the economic collapse of 1929. Though his dad spent decades paying off debts, Lacy says, he was rich in other ways.

Broadcast History

NPR's Morning Edition 7/4/08

Transcript

JL: My dad, he made me his little helper I guess, because I used to just follow him. Wherever he went I was there. He had an old Ford truck and he let me drive for the first time when I was six years old. And one time one of the farmers came into the store and said, "Jim. I met your truck going the street there a while ago and there wasn't a soul in it, I couldn't see nobody." Dad laughed, and he said, "Oh that's just James. He's going out to the farm.

And dad had a good business, he prospered real well until 1929. And his downfall was that he extended the credit to the people around him, but he didn't pay his suppliers as promptly as he should. So when the 1929 bust came along they moved in on him -- repossesed everything he had. Some of his friends tried to get him to take bankruptcy. And he said, "no I made these debts and I'll pay 'em." And he spent twenty years paying off...
Read the full transcript

Intro and Outro

INTRO:

It's time now for StoryCorps. Where everyday people sit down to interview one another and StoryCorps records these conversations. On Friday's we listen in to some of them. Today, a story from another time of economic hardship in this country.

We'll hear from James Lacy [Lae-See], who came to StoryCorps with his daughter, Jamie Breed. James Lacy is 90 years old and is originally from Sidney, Texas, a crossroads in Comanche county. While he was growing up there in the 1920s, his father ran a general store in town.

Here, Lacy remembers working with his dad.

[TAPE]

OUTRO:

James Lacy, at StoryCorps, in Abilene, Texas. The interview will be archived with ALL StoryCorps interviews at the Library of Congress.

Subscribe to the project's PODCAST ... at NPR-dot-ORG.

[STORYCORPS FUNDER State Farm + Joe and Carol Reich]