A New Deal Winter & Christmas: "New Year's Eve" print - and a New Year's Eve WPA vaudeville show

Above: "New Year's Eve," a wood engraving print by Albert Abramovitz (1879-1963), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, ca. 1935-1939. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Above: A WPA poster, promoting WPA vaudeville performances in San Diego, on New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, and January 2nd, ca. 1935-1939. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: Vaudeville shows featured a wide variety of performances, for example, music, dance, juggling, comedy, dog shows, and escape artists. Above is a WPA vaudeville act in San Francisco, ca. 1935-1939. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: "Mountains in the Snow"

Above: "Mountains in the Snow," an oil painting by Jenne Magafan (1916-1952) and her twin sister Ethel Magafan (1916-1993). The painting is in room 5051 of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building (originally the Social Security Administration Building), and the General Services Administration describes it as "a quiet, idyllic scene of stately trees, vast plains, and soaring mountain peaks. In the lower right portion of the mural, two horses pull a large wagon heaped with hay, atop which sits a red-shirted farmer. Traveling behind tall, barren trees, the horses’ path leads to the middle distance, where a herd of grazing cattle awaits their bounty. Beyond this, the land swells into a range of mountains, covered in places by delicately rendered evergreens, brown and yellow vegetation, and snow." Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and Olin Conservation, Inc.

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: WPA recreation programs vs. social media

Above: The caption for this photo, taken in Minneapolis ca. 1935-1943, reads, "Mrs. Thelma Nemetz, WPA recreation leader at Fairview Park, helps Frances Schmit with her skates." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

The Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43 (1946), notes that "WPA recreation projects provided leadership and instruction in recreational activities of many kinds, supplementing the existing public services of local communities. The aim of this work was the year-round operation of a varied and well-balanced recreation program, including social, cultural, and physical activities, for adults as well as young people" (p. 62).

In America today, we have social interaction and obesity problems. Television, video games, the Internet, texting, celebrity worship, and more, are making us more secluded from one another and more sedentary. In other words, we're fat and lonely. (See, e.g., "Adult Obesity Facts" and "Childhood Obesity Facts," CDC, and also, "Social isolation, loneliness could be greater threat to public health than obesity," Science Daily, August 5, 2017).

In modern America, it seems to me that we are more engaged with technology than we are with each other. Social media (again, as it seems to me) is creating a culture of superficial interaction, perhaps even an excuse not to actually meet and talk to each other in the physical world. This is not to say that social media cannot bring people together, for example, organizing events, meetings, and trips, but the net effect seems to be weighted towards digital interaction, not real-world interaction. This is great for marketing, as we are bombarded with Internet advertising and our personal information is bought, sold, and traded, but perhaps not-so-great for our mental and physical health.

Technology and social media are here to stay, of course (and I'm not oblivious to the fact that I'm being critical of social media on a blog), but perhaps we could still learn a thing or two from the WPA recreation programs, and have a little more balance in our lives. Perhaps social media can do a better job of bringing us together, in the physical world, to talk to each other and also reduce the size of our waistlines.

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: Timberline Lodge

All photos below are courtesy of the National Archives, and were taken around 1937-1938.

Above: Oregon's Timberline Lodge, built by the WPA between 1936 and 1938, is still a popular winter recreation area today. The lodge has a history web page that discusses its WPA origins. In this photo, we see Mt. Hood in the background.

Above: A skier at Timberline Lodge. Did you know that WPA workers created 310 miles of new ski trails across the country, and improved another 59 miles?

Above: Another skier at Timberline Lodge.

Above: The Timberline Lodge coffee shop.

Above: A room at the Timberline Lodge.

Above: Getting ready for a day of leisure and recreation at the Timberline Lodge.

Above: A cozy common area in the Timberline Lodge.

Above: WPA artists and artisans of all kinds were employed on the Timberline Lodge construction project.

Above: A WPA worker makes window drapes for the Timberline Lodge.

Above: A mural of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox, at Timberline Lodge. This mural was recently restored after suffering water damage.

Above: Dining at the Timberline Lodge.

Above: Guests enjoying a winter scene in the warmth and comfort of Timberline Lodge.

Above: Skiing amongst the clouds at Timberline Lodge.

Above: During the New Deal, Americans were encouraged to take vacations, participate in recreation programs, visit parks, etc. It was important to New Deal officials that Americans enjoy their lives, and so they created or operated many recreation projects, like Timberline Lodge. In fact, it was so important to President Franklin Roosevelt, that he included it in his famous-but-ignored Second Bill of Rights speech. He wanted Americans to have "The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation." Today, America's wealthy CEOs & shareholders, through their job policies, investment choices, wage stagnation, political puppets, and general greed & selfishness, have done their best to thwart FDR's wishes. They have created a culture of fear, where workers are hesitant to use their already-pitiful vacation time because they don't want to be viewed as replaceable or less-than-dedicated to their millionaire & billionaire masters. And wealthy CEOs & shareholders have kept wages as low as possible, so that even if someone has vacation time, they might not be able to do much with it (for example, visit Timberline Lodge). Worse, many people must use their vacation time to take care of personal business or doctor visits. (See, "The State of American Vacation: How Vacation Became a Casualty of Our Work Culture," Project: Time Off). Americans should end their slavish devotion to the super-wealthy and demand more recreation time. After all, the super-wealthy are not shy about taking time off themselves (that is, if they work in the first place), as President Trump's weekly vacations highlight. So why should we be shy about it?

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: Children enjoy a WPA mural in Minneapolis

Above: Children enjoy a WPA mural depicting winter activities, at the Sidney Pratt School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1938. The school building still exists today, but it's unclear whether the mural does. All across America, in schools, libraries, hospitals, post offices, and other public buildings, New Deal artists painted murals to inspire and brighten the country. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: Mr. Potter's Republican Party - "They're not my children"

Above: Mr. Potter, the miserly and grumpy businessman from the Christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life." Image used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.

President Trump and Congressional Republicans recently passed long-term tax-cuts-for-the-rich, thereby fattening the wallets of their super-wealthy donors as well as their own. For the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), however, only short-term and inadequate funding could be agreed to. Millions of parents across the country have been worrying, for months, about whether their children would continue to receive good healthcare. Now they are granted a few months reprieve until their next bout of anxiety and stress. 

The Republican Party's attitude toward CHIP, as well as their attitude toward every other program that helps underprivileged children (for example, food stamps, drinking water infrastructure improvements, and debt-relief for their parents) is reminiscent of a scene from "It's a Wonderful Life," where a loan officer is pleading with the greedy & selfish Mr. Potter to allow debtors to have more time to pay their bills:

"Times are bad Mr. Potter. A lot of these people are out of work."

"Well then, foreclose."

"I can't do that. These families have children."

"They're not my children." 

To be fair, Republicans are a little kinder then Mr. Potter. Because Republicans not only love their own children, but they also love the children of their millionaire & billionaire donors. In fact, they just gave those children a large estate tax cut, thereby fortifying their privileged status in America's caste system.

Think about it: For rich children, who need no help, and often brag about their idle & luxurious lives, Republicans enacted a large and permanent estate tax cut. For poor children, who do need some help, Republicans reluctantly agreed to a small and temporary funding band-aid for their healthcare.

Mr. Potter would be impressed.

A New Deal Winter & Christmas: "Christmas Eve, Taos Pueblo," and FDR's last Christmas message

Above: "Christmas Eve, Taos Pueblo," an etching by Gene Kloss (1903-1996), created while she was in the New Deal's Public Works of Art Project and/or Federal Art Project, ca. 1934-1936. Kloss was a prolific artist and "Her work graces scores of major private collections here and abroad as well as the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, The Carnegie Institute, The San Francisco Museum of Art, The Library of Congress and the National Academy of Design" (Gene Kloss, Taos Fine Art). Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and the New Mexico Museum of Art.

"It is not easy to say 'Merry Christmas' to you, my fellow Americans, in this time of destructive war... This generation has passed through many recent years of deep darkness, watching the spread of the poison of Hitlerism and Fascism in Europe, the growth of imperialism and militarism in Japan, and the final clash of war all over the world... We pray that with victory will come a new day of peace on earth in which all the Nations of the earth will join together for all time. That is the spirit of Christmas, the holy day. May that spirit live and grow throughout the world in all the years to come."

--President Franklin Roosevelt's last Christmas address to the nation, December 24, 1944.