My father had been out of work for three years and we had been living on what he could make from odd jobs and the kindness of relatives and friends. I remember taking what seemed like a forever drive to Greenbelt to look at the model home. It was furnished in "Greenbelt Furniture," beautifully simple in the Danish style. The colors were bright, and I remember even the dishes on the dining room table were in different colors for each place setting. It was nothing to compare with the cramped quarters we had to our upstairs room [in Washington], where my brothers and I slept on army cots which we folded under our parents' bed during the day. Best of all, we would no longer have to share a bathroom with three or four families. The house was so clean -- we had been living with roaches and mice. Then I had my own room and a brand new bed (I fell out of bed that first night, because I was used to sleeping much closer to the floor on a cot). I remember feeling the excitement my mother felt at having her own clean place.
More Oral History
From the Virtual Greenbelt Museum
