The great
depression of 1929. What a terrible
time to live through. I cannot fathom
just how miserable it must have been during the depression. The hopelessness. The woman in the picture is a migrant mother
who was a field worker. The picture was
taken at a pea-pickers field camp in Nipomo ,
California in 1936. Her name was Florence Owens Thompson. The children are Ruby at her right shoulder, Katherine
at her left shoulder, and Norma is the baby in her lap. A photographer took her picture in 1936 and
the picture came to symbolize the plight of the farm workers during the
depression. She was age 32 when her
picture was taken. She must have been
quite a fighter because she survived and lived to age 80. The picture below was taken 43 years after
the great depression picture and she was age 75 at the time. The three women with her are her daughters
in the picture above.
From left
to right the daughters are Katherine, Norma, and Ruby who is squatted
down. Of course that is their mother Florence seated in the
chair. Go back and take a look at the
children in the picture above and realize how well her children succeeded when
they grew to adults. They started with nothing and ended up
successful. Here is a picture of
Katherine today holding the famous picture of them with their mother.
She has
her own home which looks to be pretty nice.
Quite an accomplishment. Did the
adversity that they faced growing up make them stronger? People really were a hearty stock years
ago. Like the song says "only the
strong survive".
The
necklace that Florence
is wearing in the picture above looks to be of an indian design to me. It is hard to tell because the picture is so
blurry. It would be logical since Florence was born Florence Leona
Christie, a full-blooded Cherokee from Oklahoma . She was also the granddaughter of Ned
Christie, who was a Cherokee, a well respected, man and in 1895 was a Cherokee
senator.
He was
falsely accused of murdering a marshal, hunted by a posse and killed.
An
eyewitness testified years later that Ned Christie had not killed the marshal. And so his good name was cleared.
What a
colorful heritage Florence Thompson had.
And it looks like life turned out alright for her and that the bad days
of the great depression are just a memory for her. The picture of her as a migrant mother now
resides in the Library of Congress. And
in 1998 the United States Post Office put her picture on a postage stamp to
commemorate her life. There is lots of
information on the internet about Florence Owens Thompson and "migrant
mother". Do some searches because
it is really a very interesting story.
I
sometimes wonder if there may be another depression looming on the horizon with
the economy being so bad. Will I get to
experience what this woman went through?
Would I be strong enough to weather a depression as she did? I sincerely hope that I don’t find out. With the presidential elections near, these
thoughts of the country’s finances and the image of the migrant mother loom in
my mind. Let’s keep our fingers crossed
and hope for the best, and of course vote for the right person. But most of all, Vote! Lew
2 comments:
What an interesting article. It held my interest from beginning to the end. Lew did a fine job as an investigative reporter.
What an interesting article. It held my interest from beginning to the end. Lew did a fine job as an investigative reporter.
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