A childhood belief about history

I used to believe the “Great Depression" was a weather-related occurrence. All the pictures I'd seen were of terribly unhappy-looking people taken in shades of grey. Being aware that I was happier on sunny days than on cloudy ones and having a working knowledge of the effect of light on photography, I put two and two together and assumed that the sky had been overcast for so long that large numbers of people became depressed. At some point I was educated on the economic application of the word “depression” and also learned that the photos I’d seen had been taken with black & white film. I was more amazed by the fact that there hadn’t always been color film than I was by the economic ramifications of the stock market crash. I didn’t understand why my grandparents complained about getting paid a few dollars a week. The pay sounded great – but not having color film? Now THERE was a real hardship . . .