Life — January 23, 1931 — page 6: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This page is a humorous essay titled "Look At The Calendar" about how the calendar year 1931 affects office workers' schedules and paydays. The accompanying cartoon illustrates two office workers examining a calendar with concern, with one saying "I bought forty shares and, believe me, it's got me nervous!" The satire plays on the 1931 context: this was during the Great Depression following the 1929 stock market crash. The cartoon jokes about how ordinary workers became amateur stock investors, hoping to recoup losses or build wealth, only to find their nervousness about stock performance now tied to calendar quirks affecting their actual paychecks. The essay's focus on "five paydays" versus "four paydays" in different months reflects the financial anxiety of Depression-era workers managing tight budgets where even one missing paycheck mattered significantly.