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Response to a photo, remembering the beginning of Social Security. |
Pa, a nice young man named Mr. Shay dropped by to see us…. said he had money to give us, if we’re older than 65; money from the US Government. Mr. Roosevelt signed a law last year. Do you know anything about this Pa? He gave me this here piece of paper that he says tells all about it. I don’t know if I’m more scared to get some money or not to. “What can the government do to us if we take that money and don’t pay it back?” I asked him. He said we don’t have to pay it back, ever. We get it because of all the taxes we paid all our lives. Did you ever hear such a thing? He says money will come in the mail every month. All he wanted was to see our birth certificates. Well, I said to him, we ain’t got no papers like that. We was born at home. Both of us was. He asked if we have baptism certificates. I said I do. He asked to see so I showed him. And I showed him all my perfect attendance cards from Sunday School. He asked about you too. I told him you were gone. “That’s all right, ma’am,” he said. He was real polite. He asked me to sign a paper. I told him I don’t write nor read. He read it to me and I made my mark. I hope I did right. I sure wish you was still home, Pa, ‘stead of over in this here churchyard. Note: Mr. Walter Shay was one of the early social workers serving under the 1935 Social Security Law in West Virginia. |