However, as bad as it was for us during this awful time in
history, we on the farm were far better prepared to survive than
folks in the urban centers. We were able to grow our own food
and we preserved sufficient quantities each year to last during
the periods when nothing was growing. We also slaughtered our
own meat, and everyone had smokehouses where the meat would
be cured and hung up for storage and smoking.
In that time, there were no such things as food stamps, commodity
distributions, aid for dependent children, welfare, and so forth
and so on. Family members helped each other and helped their
neighbor any time they were called on to do so. It was unheard
of to charge a neighbor for helping in a time of need --
whatever the circumstances. When a neighbor's home was
destroyed by bad weather or fire, the others in the area pitched
in together, and another house was erected. Somehow, the
neighborhood would come up with bits and pieces of lumber,
hardware, and such, and the new house would quickly go up.
Of course, as much material as possible would be salvaged from
the home that was destroyed.
In November 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president and the nation was in for a long and at times bumpy ride. Mr Roosevelt was elected wite a wide majority and suddenly seemed to grasp the idea that he knew better than anyone including congress, what was good for the Nation. He became the nearest thing to a dictator this Nation has ever had.
Mr. Roosevelt came to power with a load of ideas on how to get the Nation out of the depression, some were quite good and many were totally unconsitutional. In fact the Supreme court consisted of a majority of judges that had been appointed by republican presidents and so rulled many of the president's pet projectrs unconstitutional. Roosevelt then set out to reform the Court so he would have a majority of judges favorable to his ideas and proposed legislation. To his surprise the Congress which had been almost a rubber stamp failed to agree to his idea of packing the court in order to have a majority. Mr. Roosevelt wanted a law passed whereby all judges aged 70 or older who had been on the court for ten or more years and had not retired would have more or less the power to bypass these old men as he called them. He would have lthe power to appoint at least 6 additional judges, because that is how many "old men" he wanted to more or less replace. With these additional
6 judges he would have control of the court as well as Congress and therefore could have his way with the entire government.
Officially, history records the Great Depression hitting in
the year of 1929; but on the farm, we really didn't feel the
effects until about 1932-33. Everyone I knew was so poor anyway,
it was just a matter of getting poorer!
For example if you had four cows that were capable of producing milk for your family the government would send out an agent who would paint a green X on the cow's forheard and the next day or so another agent would come out with a 45 Colt Revolver, place the barrell between the cow's eyes and shoot the cow dead. They did this to all except one cow they would leave with the family no matter how large the family was. In other words they would by this method deny the farm family any milk or butter and they would be forced to buy from the market or dairy or so they hoped. That was totally stupid because the farmer had no money to buy anything except the items the family had to have to survive. My wife came from a family of 8 and had 5 milk cows that provided the family with just enough milk and butter for the 8 members of her family. After the government killed four of the five the family never had milk or butter again ever.
I don't know how long the program ran but I know that hundreds of poor families went without milk for the rest of the depression that lasted until after WWII was over in 1945. To make sure the farmer was not able to use the dead cows for meat or food products of any kind, the farmer had to drag the dead animals off to some designated burial area, dig a pit and bury the carcus. That showed just how much Mr. Roosevelt loved and respected the poor and almost destitute small farmer, especially the share croppers. This was only one of his stupid ideas that never worked and only ended up hurting the pooor even more. The most inhumane aspect of this killing program was that the government refused to pay these poor farmers one red cent for killing most all of their milk prooducing cows. In order to produce milk cows have to produce calves and you have to feed a part of the milk to the y;oung calf for several weeks and then either sell the calf or kill it for food. This meant that the cow was only able to produce milk for a relative short time and she then had to be bred and produce another calf to get more milk. In order to have milk for most of the year a family had to have five or six cows in order to feed a family of 8. When Mr. Roosevelt ordered this mass killing and left each family with only one cow that meant that there was very little milk left after feeding the calf. This was one of his worst ideas and there were several.
Mr Roosevelt seemed to flood the nation with ideas he hoped would bring the country out of the depression but nothing worked until WWII and even then the Nation didn't even start to emerge from the depths until after the war was over. I remember too well walking the streets in Sandiego and having everyone and I mean everyone refuse to even talk to me about employment. It wasn't becau;se there was nothing to offer, they would not talk to me becau;se I was wounded in the war and our government had not even begun to address the thousands of us who had been injured.
Well thats another chapter and I will continue with a few more of Mr. Roosevelts attempts to help the country recover. He came up with numerous ideas on how to improve production on our farms and to find some way to increase prices that wouold help the business community recover, even though it might be at the expense of the small farmer and especially the share croppers. I don't recall in what order some of these programs were developed but believe me I remember how they failed as far as we were concerned.
One such idea had all cotton growers limitedwith how many acres they could use for cotton growth and they came up with a percentage. I don't recall the exact percentage but it was applied to all groweres regardelss of how many acrs the farmer owned. For example if one farmer only owner 100 acres and 50 acres was dedicated to growing cotton and the governmnet decided he could only devote 50 percent of the 50 to cotton he would have to put 25 acres in cotton and the other 25 acres was to be put in what was called the soil bank where it would lie fallow and grow weeds.
Now, the farmer who owner 2,000 acres and devoted 1,000 acres to cotton he would be allowed to plant 500 acres in cotton and 500 acres would lie fallow. This farmer had money and he had a way to beat the system. He would simply go out and buy another 500 or 1,000 acres of land that in many cases would not even grow a healthy weed, put that land in the soil bank and still have the original 1,000 in cotton. That was OK with the Roosevelt administration even though it aqueezed the little farmer out of the market and rewarded the rich farmer. This practive is still going on today in several different forms. The rich land owner gets richer and the little farmer is no longer in bsiness. Sor of reminds one of the oil companies of today and how they work.
We also was forced into a so called land improvement program that didn't work. In this one we were told we could only plant two rows of cotton then we must plant two rows of peas, green peas or beans and then two more roows of cotton and so forth. There was a new restriction. We were not allowed to harvest the peas or beans when they reached a production stage and were edible. We were told we had to let the peas mature on the vine and then we must plow the pea vines or plants under so they could enrich the soil for the next year. the next year we were supposoed to make note of the rows that were planted with peas and then plant cotton on those rows the next year. Oh Yeah!!!
However with all these ideas along with Roosevelt's attempt to pack the the Supreme Court with yes men the Congress finally became alarmed at this attempt to grab so much power for himself and refused to pass his requested law. Although he failed in his attemppt to pack the court he did in fact finally get his majority court when one justice retired and Roosevelt was able to appoint a judge who agreed to go along with his New Deal legislation. After all thi political in-fighting was over Roosevelt and congress had succeeding in turning the court into a politicle body instead of being an independent court as they claimed they had been before Mr. Roosevelt came along. Bad as it was in those days I believe the court has reached a real low in credibility with partizan politics at the present time. They are certainly not the independent body the founders thought the court would be and probably have never been.
In the cities the depression was much different and far worse than in the country where you had land to grow food. That is where you would find soup kitchens with long lines of people on the streets waiting for a handout of a piece of bread and a cup of soup. I fee I was very fortunate to have been born a country boy where we had ample food if nothing else. I recard days when peddlers would come to us working in the fields wanting to sell us some grapes or other items they might think we could use. These were well educated men, some had been teachers and pprofessors or had held high level jobs ina company or
Corp. They were honest men who would not take a hanout unless and until they did enogh work for you to repay you for giving them the food. They were wonderful people. My wife recalls these people coming to her family home and asking for food. Her family owned land that had a rail road running through and it passed not far from herir h;ome. The people that some called hobos would ask for food and her mother would never deny them but would fix a plate of whatevershe had to eat and give each one. Thse gentlemen would never accept the food however until they had completed some farm chores that they felt would repay her for her kindness as well as for the food. They would always sit on a chair outside the kitchena and my wife, just a little tot would sit beside them and talk their head off. She still recalls those memories with fondness and love
What a difference in today's down and out compared to those starving and lonely people. They were destitu;te but remained to hold onto their dignity and self respect. They were wonderful Americans.
During the Depression, we had truly homeless people. There were no problems with dope, robbery, stealing, and rape as we have today. There were literally thousands and thousands of people riding the rails and walking the countryside offering to do any kind of work for some food -- and when these men told you they would "work for food", they meant exactly that! They would not take the food until they had finished whatever task you gave them.
Unemployment was somewhere around 30 per cent of the entire work force, and this 30% was all heads of households. That meant there was no income whatsoever, and nothing to eat. Wives didn't work then (at least, not many did), so there was no such thing as two incomes. Today, whether we like to admit it or not, many two-income families require two paychecks only to maintain their chosen life style -- not to survive. Had that situation existed then, unemployment would have been closer to 60% by today's system of counting.
As I mentioned before, during the depression, sharecropping
mothers and wives really had it tough. They not only had the
children to take care of, they were responsible for the house,
all the cooking, cleaning, washing of clothes (which was done by
hand on a scrub-board, using home-made lye soap), and ironing --
ON TOP of having to go to the fields and pick cotton all day!
They might leave the fields 30 or 40 minutes before everyone
else in order to get home and prepare the evening meal. For the
noon meal, we usually took something with us and ate it under a
tree or wherever we could find some shade.
Now, when the depression officially hit in 1929, I was only five
years old. During the Fall of that year, when it came time to
harvest the cotton, I was given a huge burlap bag (much bigger
than me) with a shoulder strap sewn on, and told that it was
time I started to earn my own way! So, off I went to the cotton
fields with the rest of the family to pick cotton -- I was no
longer allowed to just tag along and play in the dirt!
That first day pickin' cotton is not one of my favorite memories
-- and I can still recall it vividly to this day. As soon as I
realized they were really serious about me having to pick cotton
all day long, I immediately went on strike! I sat down and flat
refused to move. I can remember thinking I was not about to
pick that stupid cotton! -- and so began another era in my life.
It was my mother's job to see that I picked as ordered. My
sister, who was about two years older than me, was a very
obedient child and never gave our parents any trouble. She was
a very hard worker in the fields and helped our mother with the
housework and cooking. However, with me, it was a different
story!
On that fateful day, my mother showed me how to put the strap
around my neck and how to pick the cotton out of the burrs, which
have very sharp, needle-like points all around the cotton. (Now
I understood why she always had cuts on her hands and arms!)
She assumed I was on my way, but I had other plans -- as soon as
she was out of sight, I sat down and started playing in the
dirt!
Well, it wasn't long before I heard her coming and, even though
I knew I was in for a spanking, I refused to move. I don't
remember how many spankings I received that day, but I know it
went on all day long and every day thereafter if it involved
picking cotton!
ANYthing else, I would willingly do, but I simply HATED that
cottonfield! To this day, I know of nothing that is more
difficult or harder on the human body than picking cotton.
During those depression years, my family never stayed on one
farm very long; we would move from one to another, hoping to
find something better. In 1928-29 we had a neighbor living
about a quarter-mile from us who had a son almost my age and
a daughter my sister's age. This was great for us, because
during periods when we weren't working the land, we would spend
the day playing with our little red wagons -- or, if it rained,
we liked to play in the water and mud. If we had to stay inside,
the four of us would play jacks -- and we two guys didn't mind
at all playing jacks with our sisters. In fact, it was fun! --
FAR more fun than picking cotton!!
Their son, Eugene Oyler, and I became lifelong friends, and we
still keep in touch to this day. When we were four or five
years old, we would meet somewhere halfway between our houses
and discuss our future and what we were going to do when we grew
up. We both decided we were NOT going to be farmers! (There
was never a minute when we doubted that we would leave that life
on the farm.) Many days we would have profound discussions --
two little five-year-olds -- for hours!
Somewhere along the way, we heard of California -- didn't know
what or where it was, but we decided that was where we would go!
I'm sure there's no connection, but that IS exactly where I
ended up -- it's where I live today, and where I have lived
since 1943!
But I'm getting ahead of myself....
I was always a rebel--very independent and, at that time, my
mother's favorite (or so everyone said). It probably was true
but, on January 25, 1930, my sister and I were sent to our
neighbor's house to spend the night and, when we returned the
next day, we had a baby brother! Suddenly, I was no longer the
favorite, and I felt I had definitely been slighted. My
brother, Noel, had replaced me.
Sometime in 1930, we moved again. This time, it was really
tough, because I had to leave Gene, my best friend. We only
moved about one or two miles away, but to two six-year-olds, it
might as well have been across the ocean -- or so we thought.
At the time we moved into the new house, my little brother was
approaching his first birthday -- and to me, he was a real pest!
I resented him because I felt he had taken my place with my
mother. She was no longer my best buddy, because she had to
take care of HIM. Besides, I was six years old -- I was
expected to work and be as productive as possible -- so there
was no time left for "quality time" with my mother.
With my sister, Florine, it was a different story. She always
did what she was told, she never disobeyed as I did, and she
could cook, work in the fields, and wash and iron clothes.
At the time, I almost considered her like a second mother, and
now, when I look back, I wonder how she did all those things!
She was only two years older than me and not much more than a
baby herself!
Maybe it's because we were expected to take adult roles at such
an early age, but we both have vivid memories of our early years
-- going clear back to when we were two and three. At best, the
life of a sharecropper was hard, and our situation was no
exception.
On the new farm, though, things were somewhat better. The house
was larger and better than anything we had ever lived in before.
It even had a hand-operated water pump to draw water up from a
well near the house in a large kitchen with a real kitchen sink!
These were luxuries to us! Our other houses never had kitchen
counters, much less sinks -- nor was the water ever piped inside.
It had to be hand-carried in buckets for all our needs --
cooking, bathing, and whatever -- so, to me (the usual water
carrier), this was really something! -- a water pump right in
the kitchen!
We also had more sleeping room and even had an inside toilet
(which was not used)--I remember being very impressed because we
had one. There was no running water for the indoor toilet, so
it was sort of like an out-house built into the side of the
house. (Maybe that is why it wasn't used!) At any rate, we still
had to make trips to the little house on the knoll when nature
called!
Everybody back then had a little outhouse out back, someplace
away from the living quarters. It wasn't really too bad --
except in the winter! Of course the bugs and other critters
could be kinda pesky in the summer too....
Growing Up Fast
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