Depression Era Journal

In the beginning of the depression we lived in Colorado but once the depression started we ended up living no where. In our family there was my father, my mother, my two younger brothers and I. Before the Dust bowl, the stock market crash and before any of the bad thing happened we were doing okay. Well, our crops weren't doing that good but our neighbors used to help us out. Every wee, all the farm families used to come together for church dinners, dances, playing board games and listening to the radio.

All the fun and games disappeared when the dryness, heat and grasshopper finally hit hard and all our crops were destroyed. We were left with no money or food. After a few month's all that was left of our farms was dry soil. Even when things were bad we always used to be a happy family but during the depression we never smiled or looked happy. The worst part was when we lost our farm because we couldn't pay the farm payment. For the first time my father collapsed right in front of us and cried. My father was always the backbone of our family and to see him fall to pieces like that made me realize how bad our situation really is. After that day our father wouldn't look straight into our eyes.

To add to our trouble there was the dust bowl. There was dust blowing everywhere. Some days you couldn't see anything but this big black cloud. By the end of the day you were covered in dust from head to toe. " We lived with the dust, eat with it and would sleep with it..." The worst of all dust storms occurred on April 14, 1935. We called it the Black Sunday. There was no sunlight and you couldn't see anything past two feet from you. There was black dust all around you.

So we had to leave Colorado because we had no home there anymore. We packed the few clothes and food we had and started walking towards the Golden State with the other families who also had no choice but to leave. By walking, riding the train and buses we finally arrived to California. We had heard so many stories about the land of “milk and honey.” There were even rumors that you could just each out and pluck food from the trees. In the movies that we saw, which were made in Hollywood, California, the people seemed so happy. Therefore everyone thought if they left their horrible lives here and move to California than they could have a nice life too. Also, there were lots of flyers from farmer promising as abundant amount of farm work in California.

Once we got to California, we found out that what we thought was all wrong. My family was expecting to work in a family farm, so after awhile we buy our own farm but we were told “land monopoly and agriculture on an industrial scale.” There fore, like the Mexican American already in California we became migrant farmers. We moved so often that we never really had a real home and the homes we lived weren't really a home. We lived in ditch camps set by farmers. These ditch camps had a "little cabin which one could throw a cat through the roof, and the stove was just about ready to fall down." These cabins were unsanitary and covered with water and mud. My two younger used always get sick from exposed to the water all the time. I hated the place, we all hated the place but we had nowhere else to go.

Our lives got better when FDR became president. One of his New Deal programs, the Farm Security Administration provided relief to migrant farmers like us. The program set up 12 new camps which were so much better than the ditch camps. We had hot showers, flush toilets, breakfast for children and excellent recreation facilities and a big hall for entertainment, and even had a library. With the start of the World War II the depression completely ended.

Bibliography:

Life during the Great Depression." All about History. All about History. org, 2002-2010.Web. 21 March 2010. http://www.allabouthistory.org/life-during-the-great-depression.htm.

Ganzel, Bill. "The Dust Bowl." Farming in the 1930's. Ganzel Groups, 2003. Web. 21 March 2010. http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/water_02.html.

C., Meredith. "Okie life in California." Migrant Okies in California. The Head-Royce School, Oakland, 25 May 2010. Web. 21 March 2010. .