The Happy Days of the Great Depression

Arthur Joseph Gionet was born in Berlin, New Hampshire February 9,1925. From 1939 to 1948 he attended the French speaking Oblate Fathers Seminaries, located in Colebrook, N.H., Bucksport. Maine, and Natick, Mass. Having left the seminary (without degrees because none were given then), he enlisted in the United States Air Force and served until August 1952. Upon his discharge, he enrolled at St. Thomas University in Houston, Tx. where he obtained his B.A. degree. In 1953, he began teaching French and Latin at Galena Park High School and left secondary teaching in 1961 to teach as an instructor at the University of North Texas, Denton, Tx. Meanwhile, he continued his graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1957, he received his Masters, and continued until he obtained his Doctorate in French and Latin in 1968. He taught at UNT until his full retirement in 1995. He reached the rank of Regents Professor and is now on the Emeritus Faculty. The author began writing bits of the Happy Days of the Great Depression while he was teaching elementary and secondary level French. He would tell the stories entirely in French with many gestures and the use of the blackboard as listening and comprehension devices. Happy Days was first written in French and only later did it appear in English.