“How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only known in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can’t scare him, he has known a fear beyond every other.”
-John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
For those who lived in the southwest during the dirty thirties, hard times often meant going hungry. And for those with children, being “a little short” meant much more than just going without–it meant watching your offspring starve. For the poor, there were no chickens for roasting . Nor was there milk for drinking–or cream or butter for that matter. Even modest commodities like eggs were hard to come by. And hard candy–the universal delight of children everywhere–was virtually unobtainable for families that had no money.
Almost unfathomable are the stories of parents who, while huddling in bed, resorted to covering their ears in hopes of avoiding the sadness that inevitably came with having to listen to children who were exchanging visions about hot meals and new toys.
For some, the perfect storm of the dust bowl and the great depression devastated the human spirit. But for others, hard times brought about great courage and somehow reinforced the will to provide and care for family members.
Despite the most demanding of times, many families refused to leave the communities in which they were born and raised. Battling to the end, the remnants of their meager existence stand as a reminder of the greatest kind of human devotion.
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