My first experiences with banking, 1931 by Cliff Stokes

From MemoryArchive

Who: Cliff Stokes
What: My first experiences with banking
When: 1931
Where: Toronto Ontario Canada

When I started grade 1 in public school the first thing that we did on Monday mornings was use the bank. Someone used to come in from a local bank and most of the children would go up to a table at the head of the class and make a deposit. I can remember the pride I had as the amount in my bankbook grew by twenty-five, or sometimes, fifty cents a week. This went on for sometime, then I stopped having money for banking. Sometime later I didn't have a book and I believe that the banking sessions ended. My father had lost his job and I presume that "my" money was used for groceries etc. Shortly afterwards other forms of money disappeared. My Dad had a collection of paper twenty-five cent bills called "Shin Plasters" and a small coin collection consisting of "Dime size" nickels and a couple of silver dollars, they all went early on in the depression.