For our Roaring Twenties Becoming History presentation, my daughter portrayed someone from the 18th century (that will make more sense in a bit) and my son was Charles Lindbergh, while I represented a lady married to a Wall Street broker.
For the occasion, I wore a 1928 Robe de Style gown, which hearkens back to the 18th century.
17TH THROUGH 18TH CENTURY ECONOMIC COFFEEHOUSES
We began our presentation in an 18th century London coffeehouse, which in the 17th century was the first setting for businessmen to meet and discuss stocks on the exchange.
There is a similar type of coffeehouse in Colonial Williamsburg that we have visited, so I suggested to my very busy college daughter that she wear one of her 18th century gowns and portray a coffeehouse server, since she knows how to do that off the top of her head.
While sitting at the table sharing the history of coffeehouses and the stock exchange, my daughter spontaneously added information she had been learning in her Economics Honors class, which was perfect!
Meanwhile we enjoyed dark chocolate covered shortbread cookies and American Heritage hot chocolate, even though food was not typically served (to my knowledge) at coffeehouses.
20TH CENTURY NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
Then we went to the basement New York Stock Exchange to interact with a Great Depression Stock Market activity from Texas A&M. (search for the italicized part after clicking the link)
I ran the bank, so the investors (my kids and guest) could borrow money in order to buy stocks like they did in the 1920s…one of many reasons why the stock market crashed.
The investors charted their financial losses and gains while planning their strategy.
We played several rounds.
Every two minutes I rang the bell, then posted the new value of the stock on the white board.
Then everyone worked through their charts and plotted their graphs.
They came to me if they wanted to borrow money, and just to make it seem official, told me if they were going to sell stock or buy more.
I kept track of everything on my own chart.
Then they worked through the results on their own charts.
Everyone decided how aggressive they wanted to play and when.
Here is the graph of the entire activity of stock values that my son plotted, which closely simulated the 1920’s Bull Market and the 1929 crash in 10 rounds of simulation.
Here is my son’s chart.
After the market crashed with a value of 0, the investors tabulated the results then brought their paperwork to the dining room table to discuss during dinner.
And yes, there was quite a bit of disappointed that the previous drop in value didn’t rise or at least hang in there a bit.
CHINESE FEAST
In the 1920’s Americans were fascinated with Chinese food.
I made various dipping sauces…
Green tea infused deviled eggs…
Chinese boiled shrimp…
Soup dumplings, which are eaten with your hands by dipping them in one of the dipping sauces, then biting into them. When bitten into, we should feel a squirt of broth in our mouth, and we did!
Here is a Chinese type of congealed salad, which was a dessert called Snow Cherries.
Pork BBQ…
Fried scallion pancakes with flaky layers of green onion! The favorite!
Asian Chicken Salad in a phyllo bowl. A hit!
And plum tea!
ANALYSIS OF OUR STOCK MARKET CRASH
During dinner we discussed our stock market crash experience. My daughter played safe, so she lost little money.
My son, since he and the others were “forced” to unwisely borrow a bit of bank money simply for the historical reenactment (I told them and especially him to just pretend he was an actor and was acting the part for the crowd) went all out and asked to borrow $1M.
Well, he toned that down a bit, but still heavily invested and did have a good chunk of change at the end of the simulation because of how and when he chose to buy and sell.
He ended with over $1000, though he did lose quite a bit of money. He was content that he had that much.
Our guest decided to go all out, being the ultimate 1920’s investor, yet lost it all and was the only one in debt.
It was interesting comparing results and experiencing how one could keep money, depending on how and when one bought and sold.
My daughter shared this activity with her economics professor who loved it and suggested she change it from the macroeconomics activity it is, to a microeconomics activity for an upcoming project.
PLAYING MAH JONG
For 1920s entertainment we returned to the kitchen table to play Mah Jong, a Chinese game that came to America and was highly popular in the 1920’s.
While set in the 1920s, Miss Daisy plays Mah Jong with friends at the beginning of Driving Miss Daisy.
A friend was quite kind to loan us the beautiful game which has a golden embossed Chinese dragon on a black lacquer box, with Chinese writing inside!
Meanwhile my son told stories about Charles Lindbergh, since that is who he was portraying.
We kept this presentation rather light on the presentation side, since we’ve been quite busy.
For more photos, check my Flickr set.
COMMENTS FROM MY OLD BLOG
Dawn – February 7, 2014 at 10:23 PM -I always love to read about your presentations. This was wonderful! You made so much food.
Blessings, Dawn
