Marshal Atkinson worked to augment his family’s income since the age of 9. “I would take the wagon my father built,” said Atkinson as he described the process of cutting railroad ties and burning them for heat. That was his first job. This in addition to his paper route shows how essential it was for every member of the family to work during those rough economic times.

Atkinson eventually began shoveling snow for people in New York’s chilly climate. He often got frostbite, though, because he did not have the proper clothing to protect himself.

Unlike the long winters in the snow, Atkinson does not remember prosperity as a kid, especially when it came to his diet. “I remember potatoes and onions.”

However, these times of economic turmoil were not all negative. Atkinson happily remembers a “baby buggy” that his brother built for him as a child, which has now become a symbol of how well his family pulled together through the crisis.

Even though the childhood of Atkinson was defined by fiscal austerity, Atkinson still has fond memories of brotherhood inspired in people because, for that period of time, everyone was in the same financial boat.

“I remember being able to walk anywhere and feel safe,” said Atkinson as he remembers how even in the parts of New York that are considered to be bad now, could be walked in without fear because people understood each other’s predicaments.

It was because of this feeling of togetherness and patriotism that Atkinson was angered so much by the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “They had no damn reason to bomb there.”

That anger inspired Atkinson to volunteer for the war effort the day after Pearl Harbor. Initially he was not accepted because he was born in Toronto, Canada, and still considered an alien. However, Atkinson was drafted to pack parachutes in northern Africa during the height of violence in 1942. “It was very, very frightening.”

After the war a time of prosperity occurred, and Atkinson moved on to attain his degree in dairy husbandry, but he admits the effects of this time will always stay with him.