Now nearly 97 years-old and still working as a financial adviser, Mr Bickell can see plenty of similarities between the current crisis and that of 1929.
"There was a lot of borrowing going on before the crash, just like today, and everybody was very happy," he says.
"People were making lots of money, but then suddenly things started to change."
Mr Bickell started off at the age of 17 years old chalking up the stock prices at a brokerage in the small town of Reading, Pennsylvania.
As Wall Street went into financial freefall on 24 October 1929, he found himself being quickly promoted as his brokerage began to shed staff.
Emphasis added by me.
You happy-happy people will be the death of us who think before we smile.
For many investors and brokers, the situation was too much to bear. Rumours began to spread of people throwing themselves from their office windows.
While many of these accounts later turned out to be exaggerated, the shock of the crash did push many to take their own lives in order to escape their financial woes.
And despite its distance from the financial district of New York, Mr Bickell's home town of Reading did not escape unscathed.
"I remember two people in the town committing suicide as the effects of the crash hit home," he says.
Emphasis added by me.
Dollar Uber Alles. Your life doesn't matter. Only your money.
Now working at a branch of Wachovia Bank in Wyomissing near his home town, he has seen the events of 1929 repeat themselves with uncanny similarity.
Like many banks after the Great Crash, his current employer has recently ensured its survival by agreeing to be bought by its competitor, Wells Fargo, after a protracted period of uncertainty.
Emphasis added by me.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
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