Dear Franklin D. Roosevelt,







Hi my name is Maria Angles, age 16 and the oldest of 8. I live in a family of 10; my grandmother, mother, and 7 siblings. My grandfather had died from hunger and my father was gone far away to find a job. I really miss them very much, but this is not the reason why I’m writing letter. I am here to tell you about my thinking about your “fireside chat” and the “Bank Holiday”. I think that you are very brave and inspiring because you are the first president ever to speak to us Americans on radio; it makes me feel as if I really know you.

In your first fireside chat, you talked about the “overwhelming majority who use banks for the making of deposits and the drawing of checks.” I can already see this happening, because I saw my grandfather buying stock markets and losing money and because of this, Grandfather had to go to the bank and borrow money. But this didn’t make Grandfather any happier; it got worse and worse. At last Grandfather had to sell our home and many of our furniture to pay for the cost and this is where I am now, Hoover Ville. Hearing this name, my mother, grandmother, and my grandfather started to cry. I didn’t know why they were crying but I joined in, thinking it was because of how dirty and nasty Hoover Ville is.

A year later, Grandfather died. He died on March 3rd, 1930. I knew he had died from starvation because by looking at his body, al I can see were bones. Bones, bones, bones. Grandfather had turned into a stick after we moved into the shantytown. But Grandfather wasn’t the only one that’s a stick, we all were. Life was really terrible there; we couldn’t get any food and job.


But now that you are talking to us on the radio, it warms me up a little. We didn’t really have a radio or T.V, but I heard it from one of the window from a small house while looking for leftover foods. You told us about what banks really used our money for and why it was a bad idea to put money in a not reopened bank. Because of you, I was able to tell my family members about the banks; how they invest your money in many different forms and keep them in work to keep the wheels spinning around. This was when you declared the “Bank Holiday,” to close all banks on March 3, 1933. In this matter, banks were examined and checked out for the requirements. On March 13th, all banks were reopened. I was surprised by the hurrying of people rushing towards bank. Oh Grandfather, why did you waste your money on those old crusty banks? You could have been much happier with these news ones that were checked.

President Roosevelt, our lives had turn better with the Social Security Act passed down on August 14, 1935. Just with this act, my family and I were able to get some food on our hands. With this act, people with disabilities, unemployed, elderly, and mothers were able to get some money to buy and get food. Why couldn’t this happen sooner? I thought. Grandfather could have survived from hunger and live with us. Just thinking about the old days made me shiver. Why did Hoover even become the president, he made every thing worse than it was.

Thank you President Franklin D. Roosevelt, you have changed everyone’s live slowly but successfully. Thank you for this day you have given us. You’ve shown us what a president’s duty really is; majority of us were inspired by you.








Sincerely









Maria Angles