Dead End In Norvelt

In October 1929, the United States stock market crashed due to inflated prices and lax regulation. The collapse produced an economic calamity known as the Great Depression. In the United States and across the world, countless people lost their savings and jobs. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became president and passed a set of programs—known as the New Deal—to restore capitalism and help Americans. One policy was the creation of subsistence homesteads. As the name indicates, the government bought land so that people without much money could have homes. Milburn Wilson led the Division of Subsistence Homesteads. While Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and President Roosevelt believed that the houses should be created without electricity and running water, Wilson and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt advocated for better housing together, insisting that the homes include plumbing, electric lights, and modern conveniences like a bathtub, kitchen appliances, and a washing machine. Despite scrutiny from other government officials who believed that these features were “extravagant,” Wilson and the first lady’s advocacy prevailed. After visiting the town, residents were so influenced by her expression of interest in the Westmoreland Homesteads that they renamed the town in her honor; the town took “nor” from the last three letters in Eleanor and “velt” from the last three letters in Roosevelt (“Norvelt History Marker.” Explore PA History).

In addition to the New Deal, World War II stimulated America’s economy because the global war spurred demand for all types of goods, including deadly weapons. In Dead End in Norvelt, Dad fought in the Pacific theater in World War II against the Japanese. The Japanese were a part of the Axis, which included Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. The Americans led the Allies, which included France, England, and Russia. The alliance with communist Russia was practical since Russia could face Germany’s Eastern Front, meaning that the United States and the other countries mainly had to worry about Germany’s western side. After the war, Russia and the United States became enemies, with many Americans, like Dad in Dead End in Norvelt, fearing that communists from Russia would overthrow America and use nuclear weapons against it. Dad’s flippant relationship with the bomb shelter highlights that his fear is mostly paranoia.