[Autumn/Fall 1929]

The Girls didn’t get to hear about the happenings on Wall Street for a well over a week after the first big fall in stock prices. It was only when they went into Albany to do some Grocery shopping did they see the newspaper headlines. Both of them stopped dead and swore.

“That’s going to hit a lot of people very hard,” said Ethel.

“Including us. We had a good amount of dough in the bank just to look respectable. Those headlines were all about the run on the banks and banks going bust including ours.”

“But we have a good stash of cash and there is the gold for emergencies.”

Stella knew that Ethel was right. They would manage but things were going to take a lot longer to come to fruition that had been their plan.

“It was a good job we didn’t fall for that Realtors plan for us to have a Mortgage on the Cabin. If there is a run of the bank it could go bust and then we could be foreclosed and out on our ears. I can see that happening to a lot of folk.”

“Yes,” replied a slightly smug Ethel.

“I think it is time we had a radio at the cabin.”

Stella had not wanted the distraction before but now things were going to be different.

“How long do you think crisis this will last?” she asked.
“A couple of years at the very least. Those stocks lost an awful lot of money almost overnight. That will take a long time to rectify.” replied Ethel optimistically.

Stella didn’t disagree but knew deep down inside her that it was not going to be pretty.

---

When they had planned their great getaway, they hadn’t reckoned on was the ‘Great Depression’. That put a huge spanner in their long-term plans. Like everyone in the USA and in many other parts of the world, they would have to tighten their belts. Governments around the world had to handle the effects of such an event as best they could. To Stella and Ethel, it seemed that it was a case of ‘everyone for themselves’.

---

By the summer of 1930 and even in fairly affluent Albany the signs of the recession that followed the crash was turning into a full-blown depression. The change there had been slow and gradual unlike many other places. Now, most of the Banks were closed and shuttered but also good proportion of retail businesses were mere shadows of their former selves if they were still open that is. Their lines of credit at their favourite stores were mere distant memories. It was cash for everything now and even that was in short supply for most of the population. Everywhere you went there were people looking for work.

Despite being very careful with their cash, their reserves were not going to last more than another six to nine months when Stella said,

“We are going to need cash to get through this. The only place to sell some gold will be in New York but that has problems all of its own.”

Ethel knew what Stella meant. Gold was treated as suspicious by many dealers. Unless you could prove that you had come by the gold legally any transaction could be halted or even reported to the Authorities.

“What about Canada?” suggested Ethel.
“I may still have some contacts over the border?”

Stella shook her head.

“Didn’t you hear the reports on the Radio a few days ago. The Feds arrested someone coming over the border at Niagara with close on a hundred and fifty grand. They ain’t gonna see the light of day outside jail for at least a decade.”

Ethel did remember the report.

“There are a lot of other crossing places that are unpatrolled. Didn’t the booze runners tell you that?”

Stella could not disagree with that.

“What we need is a Chauffeur.”

Ethel nodded.

The following day, they posted a letter to New Orleans.

George’s reply came by telegram almost a week later.

“Girls,
On my way. Things not so good down here. See you soon.
G”

Stella handed Ethel the message with a smile on her face.

“Looks like the old team will be back together again?”

“Yeah but where would he sleep. We can’t be seen to be having a Male Negro living in the house for anything more than a few days…”

Stella nodded. It would not be proper for man of George’s age and colour to be seen living inside the home of two supposedly single women.

Ethel sighed.

“This being a woman thing is hard.”

Stella laughed.

“I never said that this life would be easy. Chicago wasn’t a walk in the park either. At least there is less chance of being gunned down in the street here.”

“Can we get the room above the Stables ready for him?” asked Ethel changing the subject.

“If we get some help. We are just two weak women aren’t we?”

Ethel laughed.

“I’m sure the Johnson Brothers would do the job,” suggested Stella.
“For the right amount of reward that is…”

The Johnson Brothers had been supplying their firewood all winter. They ran a cash only business. The couple suspected that they were involved in a lot more activities but what they didn’t know about they couldn’t tell on so they didn’t pry but the sound of their truck going down the road near their property at all times of the day and night made what they were doing as a side-line an easy guess.

“Well, you’d better go and ask them then?”

Stella didn’t reply straight away.

“Why don’t you go?”

Ethel was a little stunned by the suggestion.

“On my own?”

“Why not?”

In the end, Ethel didn’t been to have worried about being outed as Jeb and Dan, the two Johnson brothers were more interested in the folding green ones being used to tempt them into doing the work.

Three days of hard work by the brothers made the two rooms above the stables habitable once again. They’d even installed a new but second-hand Stove to keep the place at least reasonably warm in winter.

“Thanks boys,” said Stella as she handed over fifty dollars to Jeb. They’d already paid the boys for the materials they’d bought for the job.

“Anytime Miss Stella. This money will come in useful with Winter and Christmas coming up.”

“There is something else you can do for us. We want to start keeping chickens. I know that you have a flock or your own?”

Both of the boys laughed.

“You and everyone else,” replied Dan.

“Will this be a problem?”

“No but it would be better to have a coop that can be moved into the barn for the winter. Then you will need to get feed to last at least five or six months.”

Stella grinned.

“Yeah. I know, I kept hens as a child. That earned me enough to buy a bicycle so that I didn’t have to walk the three miles each way to school”

“When do you want it done?” asked Jeb.

“Why don’t you make the coop and bring it over. We have to go away for a few days. How about in two weeks? If you can get some layers then great.”

“Sure, thing miss Stella.”

As the boys were leaving Dan asked,

“If you don’t mine me asking Miss Ethel, who is going to be living over the stables?

“Our driver from before we came up here. He’s hit hard times like many these days. His business failed and the bank… Well, you can guess the rest.”

Neither of the brother said anything. They knew the situation only two well. They were lucky in that their home was not owned by some bank and they had five hundred acres of woodland that would not only keep them warm but supply them with an income for the hard years ahead.

Stella and the Johnson brothers did one more transaction before they left. They’d agreed to supply another ten cords of dry and seasoned firewood for the women. They also agreed to stack it in the lean-to at the side of the barn. That would keep them warm for more than a year. Once the money had changed hands, the brothers left to start getting the wood together.

---

Two days later, George arrived in Albany by Train from New York.

“Ladies, it is sure good to see you. Things are really bad down south.”

“Well, lets’ get home and you can tell us all about it.”

George automatically got into the driver’s seat and smiled. He felt at home again.

“Ready Ladies?” he asked.

“We sure are George.”

Ethel looked at Stella and said,
“The team is back together again…”

---

That evening over a rabbit stew, George explained how his business had failed.

“I messed up big time. I ignored all the signs that you told me about and got a big loan for my place. I was doing well and paying down the debt from the profits. Three months after Wall Street crashed, the bank that had given me the loan went bust like most of the others and I was foreclosed by some Yankee Finacier who had bought up all the notes from the bank for around five cents on the dollar. If I had known about that deal, I would have been ok but it was done and dusted before I knew. I wasn’t alone. Whole blocks of the city are empty of people. All the houses boarded up. The only jobs are for a few security guards to keep the old occupants out. They can’t even get back in to get their belongings it is that bad.”

“We knew it was bad but… that is shocking,” said Stella.

“I tried to sell some gold in New York but no one was buying. One place even called to cops on me. That’s when I headed for the Train.”

“They probably thought that you’d stolen it?”

George nodded.

“Never mind, we can get it sold when we go to Canada,” said Ethel.

“That ain’t a good idea boss. Word on the street in New York is that the Feds have deployed the Army and the Navy to patrol the border and that a new Federal agency is being created to deal specifically with bootleggers. Here look.”

George retrieved a very dog-eared copy of the Wall St Journal from his valise.

The girls looked at the two separate reports in disbelief.

One report told of a former Banker who was fleeing the country with not just his family but a large number of works of art. He’d been detained as he tried to cross over into Canada at the ‘Thousand Islands’ border crossing. His booty was hidden in a truck that was carrying several cows.

“That’s out then,” remarked Ethel.

“They got two others trying to cross over into Canada by rowing boat at Sault Ste. Marie three days after the crash. They were carrying a load of diamonds.”

“What about the black market for gold?” asked Ethel.

“Fifteen cents on the dollar in mid-town if they don’t turn you into the Feds first.”

“Then it looks like we will have to dig up our stash of cash then?” remarked Stella.

“There is close on fifty g’s there. At our current rate of spend it should last us ten years.

“Ten Years? You think that it will go on that long?”

Ethel nodded.
“See this?”

She pointed to a small three paragraph piece at the bottom of the page.

“This guy ‘Roger Babson’? I’ve heard that name before?”

“Yeah, he’s a prohibitionist.”

“Bastard!”

“He might be but he also forecast the drop on Wall St after reading a paper written by some Limey about investment bubbles. Anyway, he’s now saying that due to the over and often irresponsible lending of the last few years, we could end up in a depression. From history, he estimates that it could last a whole decade if not longer. He also says that a war would be the best way to bring the depression to an end.”

Silence fell over the three.

“Getting those hens is just the start.”

George laughed.

“What do you’s know about keeping chickens?”

The girls laughed.

“Stella does but we can all learn.”

George sighed.

“I can see me doing a lot of the work around here then?”

Stella looked at Ethel and the two of them looked at George.

Then Stella said.
“George, you are part of the team. We each have a role to play if we are to survive just as we did back in Chicago. We could not have done what we did without you so don’t get… What’s the word?”

“Uppity?” suggested Ethel.

“I don’t do ‘uppity’,” interrupted George.

“No, not uppity but you have to play your role as our driver and worker and sleep in the room over the barn but otherwise everything gets split evenly three ways just as before. Go it?”

George smiled. His white teeth told the girls that he was ok with the deal.

[one week later]

George drove the girls into Albany where they took the train to New York. After a night in the city, they boarded a train for the nation’s capital, Washington. Here, Stella bought a well-used but serviceable Buick Sedan at a very low price and the left DC behind them as they headed southwest.

They spent the night in Charlottesville before travelling onto Roanoke the next day. After booking into a small hotel near the Railroad Depot, they went looking for something to eat.

They’d just started their meal when Ethel said,

“Don’t look now but Lieutenant Draper has just walked in.”

Stella stiffened. It took all her willpower not to turn around.

“What the heck is he doing here?”

“I don’t know but one of the top people from the Prohibition Bureau in Chicago being here at the same time as us can’t be a coincidence.”

“But who else besides us knows where we buried the stuff? And where we are going?”

“No one but we were very visible when we travelled by train. We didn’t hide the fact. Perhaps we should have done so?”

“Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?” said Stella.
“What’s he doing now?”

“He showed a picture to the Manager and after a few words, he’s leaving.”

“Could that picture… be you?”

“You mean the old me?”

“Well? Could it?”

“I don’t know but I’m so glad that I’m dressed like this and you have dyed your hair.”

“But even so…”

“Yeah. Let’s carry on with the meal and then leave. There is a Picture House on the next block. We can catch the late screening.”

“What’s showing?”

“I don’t care.”

Stella didn’t answer.
To be honest, it didn’t matter as long at they didn’t get their collar felt by the agents of the DOJ or the Bureau of Investigation. As far as they were concerned, they’d left that old life behind them for good.

It was late that night when the pair returned to their Hotel. They hadn’t seen their possible foe any more.

Their sojourn in the hotel was crudely interrupted just before dawn when gunfire echoed around the street below. Thankfully, the room that the girls occupied was at the rear of the premises but it woke Stella who in turn woke Ethel.

“That’s a Tommy Gun.” remarked Ethel.

Then the noise repeated itself.
“That’s another one,” she added...

“I don’t care for it whatever it is. We need to get outa here!”

Ethel gripped Stella’s arm.

“That the very thing we should not do. There is obviously something going on that does not involve us. Leaving now will just draw some unwelcome attention to us. We stay put unless we get told to evacuate the Hotel.”

Ethel thought for a second and then relaxed.

“Yeah, you are right.”

Several more bursts of gunfire echoed through the night. Each one seemed to be further away than before which pleased both of them.

---

“What happened in the night?” asked Stella as they checked out a few hours later.

“The BOI intercepted a gang trying to rob an armoured box car at the Railroad Depot.”

“Really?”

“Two of the gang were shot dead at the last count and they didn’t get away with anything.”

“I’m so glad that we live in the country. Aren’t you Stella?”

“Yes, I am my dear. It seems that cities these days are getting so violent.”

“Well, I wish you two ladies a safe journey to…?”

“London, Kentucky. We are going to visit an aunt of mine and help her sell up. The bank… Well, she has one week before she is thrown on the street.”

The desk clerk nodded his head.

“We are taking her home with us. Three can live just as cheaply as two.”

“Safe journey Ladies. Drive carefully. The roads the way you are going are not the best and you should make sure that you have enough fuel before you leave town.”

“We will. We are country women and are used to bad roads but I have to say, changing a wheel is not my favourite job…” said Stella.

---

An hour later, Ethel turned their car off the main road and stopped. She’d kept an eye out for any vehicle that might be following them but there was nothing much on the road at all.

“I’m so glad to get out of there. Well, we know why that Fed was in town and it was nothing to do with us,” said Stella.

“Me too darling.”

“Now we find somewhere to hole up until dark?”

“Yeah and still keep an eye out for any tails. Once we get to our stash we could be a target for thieves.”

“I was sort of thinking about that. Perhaps we should ditch the car or at the very least drive it to the Railroad and take the train?”

“Ah, you mean like what we did when we were last this way?”

“But go to Albany rather than Chicago?”

“Not directly but yes. I suggest we stop off in either Columbus or Cleveland?

“Well Girl? Shall we go and find somewhere nice and quiet to park up until dark?”

“Why not?” said Ethel as she started the car.

[to be continued]