Like a rollercoaster, the economy was roaring upwards, carrying many businesses along for the thrilling ride. “The New Western Hemisphere Construction Company,” with Louie Thurman and his family in tow, was on the upward ride of a lifetime. In May of 1929, Louie had just made the best presentation of his career to the company. As a newly appointed executive, Louie took a step towards the creation of his first big project. He had been waiting for the moment to come for years, his plan slowly unfolding at the hands of his wife’s and his imaginative minds. His presentation outlined the construction of a small community in upstate New York where children orphaned by World War One would have a shelter, water, and food in return for a portion of the earning that the young adults would make from their jobs. As a precaution, the company mandated that the founder of the project would invest at least half of the initial cost, but Louie didn’t mind; he was almost all the way to reaching his dream.

            Louie plopped onto the plush couch in the family room. Without saying anything at first, his wife slipped down next to him. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. “We’re so proud of you honey!” she said with a tired, but still elated tone. Without any response Louie basked in his self-made glory, his dreams finally coming to fruition. The two sat in silence for a few minutes until Louie finally sighed, “I wonder what life will be like after this? I mean, obviously it will be better, but how far can we go? How far can I take this?”

            “Don’t worry about the future now, just stick with today and how far we go doesn’t matter. Just accept it now, let it take us where it may.” Stacie closed her eyes; completely intent on letting the family’s worries go, and she soon fell asleep. After letting an array of emotions flow through him, Louie mustered the energy to pull himself up the stairs while carrying his wife. He held her gingerly and laid her to sleep in her bed. He carefully switched into his nightgown and turned off the light. He had had a successful day at work, and had been rewarded by his wife’s love when he got home. Suddenly, Louie remembered that he had forgotten to talk to his kids tonight. Despite the fact that he was extremely tired, he knew that it was an important detail of his life that he couldn’t skip over if he was ever going to be proud of himself, so he sleepily tiptoed into first Alex’s and then Susie’s rooms, being very careful not to make any noise. “Goodnight, sleep tight, see you in the morning, love you.” Whispered Louie. He knew they wouldn’t remember, but Louie knew that they were the reason he was driven to be successful. He slipped back into his own room and quickly fell asleep. Louie was riding the money train straight towards the top.

            The family owned a large house with separate bedrooms for both children, as well as a two-car garage which held one car for business and one for family. Even though Louie was the only one who drove in the family, it was an expense he could easily afford. Alex and Susie went to the premier school in their area; education and college were at the top of the children’s future plans. Louie was also a jazz fanatic, venturing into downtown at night to find the best local musicians on Friday and Saturday nights. Louie found himself lucky enough to get the opportunity to see his near namesake Louis Armstrong in concert on a few rare occasions.

            The day that Louie had anticipated for a long time was at last upon him. His boss was finally going to sign the contract committing “The New Western Hemisphere Construction Company” to build the small community. It was clear that Louie had a vibrant smile on his face, but the thing that made him the most happy was seeing the approving looks on the faces of his wife and children. Once the boss signed the papers, Louie took a picture of the document with the family camera, shook the boss’ hand, and then led his family to his business car.

            His wife, who was glowing with enthusiasm, gave him a huge hug, brought his face within inches of hers, and gave him a small kiss, then whispered “You’re the best honey, don’t ever forget.” Alex ran up to Louie, jumped up to give him a high five, and then with a cute smile had a few simple, but effective words, “Yay Dad.” Susie had nothing to say, only a meaningful hug that reassured Louie of his success. It was clear that Louie’s elation was rubbing off onto his family, for all had gigantic smiles on their faces. Partly this was because of the success Louie had already achieved, and partly for the goodwill and fortune that was sure to come as a direct result of his accomplishments.

            For the next few days, Louie had a recurring nightmare about his children. Each evening he would come home from work and greet his wife. He would casually ask her how the children were doing. Each night, she would turn her head away, and shyly point upstairs. Seeing his kids’ bright faces was generally the highlight of his nights; however each time he walked up those worn stairs, his kids weren’t smiling. They turned their faces and refused to make eye contact with Louie. Despite his greatest efforts each night they never acknowledged him. He would try to turn them towards him, yell their names, and sometimes even pick them up. However each time their blank stares shut him off from the thing he loved the most. When Louie awoke, he shrugged off these nightmares as irrelevant.

            A week later, the stock market crashed, dragging Louie’s dreams along with it. Many people speculated about the causes of the sudden demise of the economy, but what lay before many Americans was the cold hard truth that many lives had just been ruined. Widespread panic took over America. Louie didn’t feel the panic, all he felt was shock. The shock was almost as if that one night he walked into his children’s rooms only to find them missing and the window open; the shock that leaves somebody immobile, with no thoughts, just fear.

            Louie couldn’t fathom anything that he was about to go through. All of the money that he had given to his project was absorbed by the company in order to lessen the massive losses it was facing. Right in front of Louie was the looming fact that he had nowhere to turn. His biggest accomplishment in life besides his family had just been torn down, right in front of his very eyes. After a few days, it became clear to Louie that there were no easy loopholes, and the economy wasn’t going to fix itself. As he walked into the office the next day, Louie peered across his desk, where a note with one simple word upon it brought him to his knees: “Terminated.”

            Louie sat in bitter amazement at what had happened. He no longer had a reliable source of income and had lost much of his savings on the deal, so he knew he was going to have to give up many of the expensive, and some not so expensive luxuries and commodities that he had become so accustomed to having. Louie found that he had enough money to feed his family for the next few months. The family tried to sell both cars, but because everyone else was having the same problem, they couldn’t find anyone who could afford it. Even though they still had the cars, Louie could ill afford to waste money on gas, so whenever the family did go somewhere, they walked. The tuition for the children’s private school was covered until the end of the semester. After that, the kids would attend the public school, where Louie worried they might have a tough time adapting to the different social and academic environments. His weekly trips to the jazz club were cut as well. Clothing also quickly became an issue for the Thurman family. Louie could rarely find affordable clothing for anyone. As his children continued to outgrow their clothing, many of Louie’s shirts gained unsightly stains and rips from bits of food and the stains of hard work around the house. Louie could hardly stand the shame that came with losing many of his prized possessions.

            Despite the initial hope of a better future, things kept spiraling downward for Louie. He realized that even though he really didn’t need many of the things the family used to be able to afford, he had become accustomed to their use of and found living extremely difficult without them. Along with the constant feeling that something was missing, Louie was always embarrassed to go out in public with his family. Many times he would see former colleagues who rarely ridiculed Louie, but Louie could still sense their disapproval of where his life was going. The tattered clothing that the family wore forced Louie to perpetually stare at the ground, he never wanted to see the antagonizing looks in the faces of friends and strangers.

             Within a few months, Louie’s disposition worsened dramatically. The ever pessimistic news that he received weakened his will and his hope for an upturn. Although he still had his family, they were no great consolation to Louie, only reminders everyday of his failure to support and protect. Louie turned to the only medicine he knew: alcohol. One night, at about 2:30 a.m., Louie came stumbling home, extremely drunk. Unfortunately for him, his wife was waiting just inside the door. “Where the hell have you been? The kids and I missed you for lunch, dinner, and our radio time! The kids didn’t even get their bedtime story!” screamed Stacie. Louie thought for a few seconds, then a sad look came over his face, “…Oh…I missed dinner? Well that’s a shame, do you have any leftovers?” Stacie was livid with rage by this point, “You were nowhere to be found for fifteen hours and all you can think about is food? You’re despicable when you’re like this Louie, absolutely despicable!” “Oh come on honey. It’s not that bad, I was just in town with a few of my buddies relaxing. No harm was done.” Louie was still slurring his words, so it was easy to see through his charade. “No harm done? The children and I were worried sick about you. I hope you realize you have a family to take care of and children who adore you. Do you realize what your drinking is doing to this family? It’s ruining us Louie!” “It’s not as bad as you think, it’s not taking over me, and I completely control it. It’s no big deal at all; tell the children I’ll stay at home for a little while tomorrow to make sure I see them.” Keeping promises wasn’t something Louie was very good at when booze was involved, so of course he wasn’t home the next day.

            When it came to drinking, any thoughts Louie ever had of saving as much money as possible went down the drain. He would always bring money with him to the bars, and it would surely be all gone by the time he left the next day. With his alcohol problems steadily increasing, Louie found that his family supported him less and less. His wife was slowly pulling away from him with most everything he ever owned. She became more disengaged with Louie, rarely talking with him, and never striking up a conversation. She no longer waited up for Louie to interrogate him about his nights; she already knew the same old tired story. Stacie’s parents didn’t live too far away from Louie, and much to his chagrin, Alex and Susie were spending more and more time there. Every few nights, Louie would barge in his front door without any consideration to the noise, and he would notice something was missing, a piece of furniture here, and a coat there. He never completely connected the dots, but the subliminal messages slowly seeped into his mind. His wife realized the seriousness of Louie’s problem, and knew that the only way out was to leave. As much as he wanted to enforce his authority and bring her back, he knew that he could not force himself to do such harm to the ones he loved the most. One week, Louie didn’t come home for three days; he ate and slept at the bar, and this was the last straw. Stacie stopped supporting Louie; she took his kids away, his belongings away, and she took her love away.

            The last time Louie had worn his suit was for work. Back when he worked, the suit was the most important part of an outfit. The fit and style of a tailored suit would make or break a man for the day, as Louie’s co-workers acted almost like fashion critics. However he didn’t wear his suit anymore, as he had no more reason to be fancy. Today was the day, though, when his suit was the last respectable item of clothing Louie could wear. The rest of his clothes had stains and rips in them and Louie was resigned to look halfway decent, while still making a fool out of himself. While slipping out of the first bar of the night, Louie casually walked along the streets in his suit until he found an adequate bar. As he rounded the corner, he knew his house was to the right, but the allure of an unexplored bar to the left was too exciting to pass up. “Scotch, please.” Louie said, sliding onto a bar stool, already slurring his words heavily. “Speak easy sir. You don’t look so good. How bad does the depression have you these days?” inquired the bartender. “Oh nothing unbearable, wife’s leaving me, kids don’t respect me, no job, no way to support myself or the family, what’s a guy to do?” Louie stated sarcastically, while taking another drink. “I’m sure there are ways to fix it, but I don’t think any more shots will do you any good, though I’m no doctor.” Louie took a look around the bar and found that he was one of the last patrons there. He realized he must have been at the first bar much longer than he had thought, however his attention quickly turned back to the bartender. “Doctors don’t know anything about nothing these days, I’ll take another shot.” “It would appear you have a pretty serious issue here, anything that I can help you with?” asked the bartender. “Damn sure you can! Why don’t you just go tell my wife this is all a joke. Tell her I didn’t lose any money and we can still afford a house and a car and everything else that we’ve lost!” snapped Louie in his drunken fury. The bartender feared angering the drunken man more, so he quietly turned around and started pouring another drink for Louie. Eventually Louie calmed his nerves. “You know, if only there really was something anyone could do. It’s just beyond our control.” Louie was quickly tearing up, a very sudden mood swing. The bartender felt a pang of guilt for Louie, so he quietly said, “Hey, well why don’t we make this your last drink and you go home and take care of yourself for the next few days, and don’t get into too much trouble.”

            Louie rarely went home anymore, most of the time it was only to go find a stash of hidden money he had. This usually involved being drunk almost twenty four hours a day for Louie, much to the disappointment of the bartenders and bar patrons who were sympathetic towards Louie but were in no position to help him. Soon, Louie’s funds were running out; he spent much of his remaining money on drinks, saving very little for food. Even at the bars he no longer accepted human interaction, much less initiated it. His life now was booze, and nothing else was keeping him alive. Louie didn’t have the power to stay on the rollercoaster; the ride had ground to a halt.