Depression’s Child

Abstract

Abstract The theme of Chapter 1 is Bob Moog’s inability to fit in with the world around him. He was born in 1934 during the Great Depression, though his family lived “the American dream” in Flushing, New York. With a Jewish mother and Gentile father, he was raised in a Jewish household, amid a predominantly Christian community. Because of discrimination, Bob had to join a Jewish Cub Scout troop. He didn’t fit in at P.S. 24, because he was more intellectual than the other children and didn’t share their interests. He didn’t even fit comfortably within his own home, where an upstairs/downstairs dynamic prevailed: his mother wanted him to become a concert pianist, while his father encouraged his interest in electronics projects in their basement workshop. The 1939 New York World’s Fair, just steps from the family home, introduced two musical instruments—the Storytone electric piano and the Hammond Novachord—which prefigure Bob’s future.