Franklin High School - Molecule Yearbook (Franklin, VT)

Page 23 text:

10. 0 At lut , they arrived at ths border of California,, tho land of thoir dr iami 'How , they thought, wo oan got plenty of work, and buy food for our faat starring children» Their hopee were slightly dampen- ed when they met other “Oakies returning from California. But still thwy pushed onward down into the green walls?s where trees, laden with ripe fruit, were growing. But as far as work was concerned, it was rarely found; and as for wages, these people almost had to pay the Californians to be allowed to work for them Conditions , finally,became so hard that these poverty stricken people-»» - grew desperate, snd killed and robbed for a small amount of food. f t, in some places, large amounts of land lay fal- low; and some of these p ople, purchasing a few seeds, would go out, at night.to plant a bit of this land. A few of these secret gardens would grow to almost full slse before some rotten hearted official would dis- cover and stamp out the plants, and put the person who planted them in A very few of the people, however, were lueky enough to get into a nice government oamp where everything was clean and aanitary. Here, there were no police to bum their scanty bufjj p houses, to kick them off some rich person a land, or to put them in jail. Here, they were governed by committees ehSsen from th men and women in the eamp itself. Sanitary living quarters ware provided in return for work done about the camp, snd food oould be obtained for a short time while the people were look- ing for work. Outside the government oaapa, conditions were terrible. Men were foroed by starvation to pick fruit for flvs cants ( or oven for two and one half} oents a date. In this pitiful way some familias were able to make a meager living. These low wages caused strikes, famines, and un- holy disaster to these people who had corns from the East. With the cot- ton picking earn th usual flood . Th heavy rains lasted for many days, and the water ran in great streams on the surface of th earth. Theae torrents swept away the flimsy camps of thousands of p oplo, and loft them without a single solitary thing. During this tfeAe, there was no work to be found; and as a result many died of starvation or disease. Sc this is California , thought the men from the East, well, we can take it. Some survived, but many didn't. In ay opinefen„ these were the moot courageous, determined people I ever heard of Howard 0Instead '40 »» » » » !■ -1, »»»»»«« »» f «• (► Green Mountain Boys' stats lhtoh to my surprise, soon after school wlosed last year, I reoelv- ed a letter from Leslie E„ Wilson, Secretary of Boys' State, notifying me that I had been chosen by the school faculty and the Federated Men's Club of ranklln to attend the Green Mountain Boys State to be held at Horwleh University, Horthfleld, Vermont. I had heard quite a bit about the Green fountain Boys' State that had started recently, but I had no Idea that Z should ever have a chance to attend. I wvi glad of the op- portunity and as soon as I found out that I was going, I started getting rsT-dy. Aa soon as I heard that two boys from Enosburg wore going too I got acquainted with them., and we made plans to go together. We were told