perform that particular kindness. We didn’ t go into town much since Pa traded off the Model T.
He got some sort of deal— cash money, a brokedown wagon and a broke-down old horse. Pa said we needed the money more‘ n we needed the car. And I reckon it made things a little better at Christmas. We went ahead and cut a little cedar fer a Christmas tree and decorated it with some paper chains and what little“ pertys” we could make out of this and that. This year we didn’ t get any gee-gaws, but we did get some of the stuff we was needin’.
I should say that the closest little place to get necessaries was up the road five or six miles and it was called Needmore and that was the condition that we found ourselves in. Whatever you could name we needed more. If we needed anything fancier than salt or sugar we had to make the trip to Helmsburg or Unionville. They was both about the same distance. But it didn’ t matter in the long run. We mostly didn’ t get what we needed’ cause we couldn’ t pay.
Lord, we was pitiful but not so bad off as others. Like I was sayin’, we lost most of our neighbors. They moved off to the city or to bunk in with relatives or just to find some place that wasn’ t as played out as our ridge. But what beats all— city folks showed up and just started squattin’ in the places that were abandoned.
No matter had bad off we were, there were folks in the towns that were even worse off. We figured that was where the squatters were comin’ from. Pa got real worried the time we was out to the main road and watched a truck full o’ strangers drivin’ slow and lookin’ out ever’ which-a-way. We couldn’ t agree on whether they was lookin’ fer a place to camp, or a cabin to squat in, or just easy pickin’ s.
Nobody has moved in very close to us yet. In fact, our closest neighbors, about a mile and quarter away, have been here a good long while. They paid off their 40 acres a generation or so back but it’ s a mystery how they’ re getting along now. Good luck to’ em, I say.
Pa heard from somebody down at the store that Roosevelt is getting together some kinda relief for folks who are havin’ a hard time of it in the country. Pa said they’ re talkin’ about getting’ jobs fer men to work and payin’ a good wage. I guess the government can borry money easier than some of us. But maybe they will spend some of it on hirin’ folks to work.
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The government might be sendin’ somebody to see how bad off we are— and if they think we need it, they will move us some place better, and even pay us money for the farm. Boy, that’ d sure be somethin’. I’ m just tired of worries. I don’ t know anybody who couldn’ t use the help. I just hope it comes before it’ s too late.
Help did come, in the spring of 1935 as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’ s New Deal. It was the idea of R. G. Tugwell, Yale professor and advisor to FDR, to resettle rural families from worn out farms to places where they might find work or at least be closer to relief agencies. In its most ambitious form the“ Resettlement Administration,” later renamed the“ Farm Security Administration”( FSA), sought to create model farm cooperatives. This would allow farm families to continue to work the land but with help from experts who were introducing new techniques to stave off erosion and soil depletion.
The FSA was considered“ socialist” by some members of Congress and never received the funding it required to help all of the rural families who were in need. It was disbanded in 1937. •
Jan./ Feb. 2015 • Our Brown County 37