Friday, September 26, 2008

Personal Hardships in the 1930s

My situation is rather desperate. I lost my previous job several weeks ago thanks to this crushing blow the crash of the stock market has dealt to the whole country. I was not as unlucky as some others, I did not lose everything I owned. Thankfully, I had some money saved at home, as an emergency stash that wouldn't be held up by the bank. However, this money has all but run out at this point, and I fear that it will not last much longer. Many of my last few meals have come from whatever I can scrounge up from the dump. I am going to a CCC work camp in the next few days, since any other chance for a job in this point in time is short-lived and hardly worth taking.

My skills are minimal, and that's another reason why the CCC would be a good opportunity for me. I hear from friends that you are taught all the necessary skills on site, and you aren't required to know any beforehand. I hear that they're all simple tasks, but very manual labor oriented. I expect to be building structures or cutting stone or something of that sort.

I'm not really very concerned about where I'm sent to work at this point. All I'm really looking for now is my three square meals a day and enough money to support myself in other needs. I could really take anywhere, but I'd like to work in some of the forest conservation/beautification efforts, since the woods have always been a pleasant place for me.

I don't mind much what I learn either. Friends have told me that you aren't really taugh any skills that will be useful after my term with the CCC, since union leaders are causing a fuss over it. I imagine that I'll be learning manual labor tasks such as building, cutting, shaping, things like that, which i dont mind doing at all.

I really don't know much about politics, but I think Roosevelt is doing a fairly decent job in the whitehouse. At any other time in history, I wouldn't be able to work for an organization such as the CCC, so I think he's doing an ok job.

1 comment:

First Knight said...

Glad you picked up on the historic fact that there weren't any real marketable skills taught to CCC guys, but I bet the experience molded some strong character anyway. Just think, these guys are the same people who would later be called the "greatest generation" when they went off to victory in WWII.