“In four days, maybe five, he’d be home. He wondered how it would be and what he could tell them. He took a deep breath and rubbed the stubble on his face. Well he could bring them news. The boom had never quite found the way to Shulls Mills; he doubted that the bust had either. He could tell them about the depression.”
Music comes of age during the Depression epoch whereby employment, and life is quite difficult. Evidently, his homecoming is not absolutely joyous because he has not succeeded thus far. Survival is extremely difficult, although he has completed schooling, considering that at the moment of reflecting what he would tell his family, he is extremely hungry.
“In this peculiar mood William Music looks after it a moment before he gives a little snort of laughter. Well sure now he thinks buying such as that is one way for a man to keep himself and his family poor until he goes on strike, gets himself hurt, or until the hard times come again. Yes, and how many are there in Switch county any wiser, he wonders. Yes, and who could say the hard times won’t come again?”
William Music reflects that it is unwise for young people to purchase cars for they are equivalent to liabilities which would contribute to their poverty. Having experienced difficult times during the depression, he reflects that it is advisable not to spend money of cars m for should tough times come, it would be unsustainable to maintain them.
