Franklin High School - Molecule Yearbook (Franklin, VT)

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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

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11 to bring our on bedding to ooiae prepared to play baseball, basket ball. And tennis; to bring some kind of musioal Instrument if we had one, ao that we night play in the band On Sunday„ June 18, we started, reaohlng Norwich about three in the afternoon., m aoon as we arrlred we registered in the iiorwloh Armory and were aa signed to our rooau. After undergAinj a medical cxtraUUtion we were given green oapa,aoaething like those the Aaerioan Legion asa- bers wear, with Orean Mountain Boys' State printed on them in gold lettersoAbout an hour later, when wo finished at the Armory, w« found our rooms we weren't fortunate enough to get three rooms together. The two boys fro nosburg were in the cane building, but my room was in an- other building across the oaapua from them. I thought that wasn’t going to be auoh fun. but I found ay roan to be largo and equipped with furni- ture for two, A follow from Burlington was already there. Supper was served at mix in the Harwich Mese flail,whieh was a large plaoe seating a hundred and fifty people, 1e couldn’t all eat at onoe, however, because there were over four hundred of us; so we were divided into groups which were named by counties and towns, and a few oounties would oat at a time. After supper, we went back to tho Armory where we ware introduced tr the QMp directore and off leers of the Qreen Mountain boys' State, Thor were all friendly and told us they were going to try to give us one ef the fioet exalting weeks of our lives, and in my mind there is no ques- tion hut what they did. ttovenor Aiken gave a interesting speech,that night,telling what he thought of Boys9 State and what a good time he thought we could have If we took part in it. After the governor spoke the camp directors and officers explained the aim of 3oys Stats, and told uo what wo wore going to do while we were there. that we did was to earry on a form of government, with each town sleeting lfrs own town offioere, and with a govanor Oosttat «»o «govern»» would see eons boj lng so aeon e s bee. boy disobeying ed with eoraflj ; the rulea or playing a prank - like fill- nkee or tearing a re to pleoes- and would