Columbians remember Christmases during the Depression

Monday, December 22, 2008 | 5:56 p.m. CST
Claude Havens, who was born in 1915 in New York City, looks through a photo album in his Columbia apartment. He grew up in an orphanage and was sent to Missouri on an orphan train. He said the Great Depression didn't have a big effect on him because he was used to living on nothing.   ¦  ANGIE CIPPONERI/Missourian
BY Chelsey Pollock

Three Columbia residents share childhood memories of holidays during the Great Depression.

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  • Mary Watkins talks of life after the Great Depression.
  • Katherine Finley speaks about her grandfather's "fairy Christmas tree" made from tinsel.
  • Claude Havens talks about living on nothing while at an orphanage during the Depression.
  • Mary Watkins, shown in her Columbia apartment, was born in 1940 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She said her family didn't have a lot of money after the Depression so the children learned not to expect expensive holiday gifts.
  • Katherine Finley was born in 1919 in Bosworth. While posing for a portrait in her Columbia apartment, she shared memories of holidays during the Great Depression. She said her most memorable Christmas involved her grandfather's makeshift "fairy Christmas tree" covered in homemade tinsel.
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