Alan Brown

September 29, 1929

Dear Diary,
Today is the worst day of my life because the stock market crashed. I am losing my possessions by the second because of this crisis. You can hear in my apartment building all the noise the stockbrokers are making, knocking on peoples’ doors and telling them to pay what they owe for the stocks. The stockbrokers are panicking because they have lost so much money when the stocks had crashed. Man, if only I knew this was going to happen to me, I would have sold my stocks a lot sooner.
For a few days now, the newspaper had reported that the stocks are overpriced and they will crash soon. No one knew that it would crash this dramatic and everyone was taken by surprise. I was told by a friend who had gone to the stock market today that he noticed that all the people started selling their stocks because the stocks were rapidly decreasing. He got out quickly after seeing the stocks starting to fall and lost $250.
In total I have lost lost $1000 in money in the stocks, and that is not all I have lost. Now my stockbroker has sent a letter saying that he wants me to pay for the stocks that I bought on margin. I had put my new model T car for collateral. I will be very sad if they take it away because it had taken me five years of saving money just to buy this car. I also received an eviction notice saying that if I don’t pay the $30 rent by tomorrow, I will be kicked out of my apartment.
What will I do to pay the rent, now it is hard to find a job because many factories are closing due to bankruptcy? Also my family has called me saying that they need money because it is all gone because of this crisis. I hope that tomorrow, I can find a job to make some money towards the rent.

Hoping for a better tomorrow,
Alan Brown