Welcome to Saturday...

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 6:54am

Good morning everyone, I'm standing in for Smiley today.

Several weeks ago smiley made a comment about the WPA as a model to help solve some of our massive unemployment. The Works Progress Administration was put into place in 1935 and lasted until 1940. It was a ...

...gigantic new program of emergency employment. The new measure would give three and a half million jobs... The program would cost nearly $5 billion, making it far and away the largest single appropriation of money by the United States or any other nation in history.

Yesterday magiamma wrote an essay on how to address the astonishing problems we are facing today. We need massive transformation, imagination, and a willingness to bring about fundamental change. We have a model from the 1930's. We can do this.

[video:https://youtu.be/o5zb0WTSLsY]

By the time WPA came to an end it had built or improved 2,500 hospitals, 5,900 schools, 1,000 airports, and nearly 13,000 playgrounds. It had done everything from conducting art classes to running a mobile library (using pack mules) in the Kentucky hills.

Now, because of Covid, we have to fundamentally change and adjust how we can gather in public spaces, but we can do that. We can put all these talented people to work and infuse vibrancy back into our local communities. I love summer theatre festivals that are held outdoors, they are really fun.

The Federal Theatre Project...produced some of the most original and vital theater America had ever seen... Sinclair Lewis' drama It Can't Happen Here, opened in twenty-one theaters in eighteen cities simultaneously. Puppet shows for children in city parks, dance theater productions (New York's Henry Street Theater had to call out police reserves to handle overflow crowds at these productions), plays in Yiddish, Spanish, and French, poetry drama (W. H. Auden's Dance of Death, T. S. Eliot"s Murder in the Cathedral) all these and many, many more were produced by WPA.

A Federal Art Project gave employment to hundreds of painters and artists. Some of these taught everything from Indian rope-weaving to fine arts. Others were employed decorating federal buildings.

The above quotes fromThe Great Depression Robert Goldston

. The New Deal gave federal money to put thousands of writers, artists, actors, and musicians to work--in a a Federal Theatre Project, a Federal Writers Project, a Federal Art Project: murals were painted on public buildings; plays were put on for working-class audiences who had never seen a play; hundreds of books and pamphlets were written and published. People heard a symphony for the first time. It was an exciting flowering of arts for the people, such as had never happened before in American history, and which has not been duplicated since.

Howard Zinn A People's History of the United States

The chapter in Zinn that I quoted from is titled Self-Help in Hard Times. We all just paid our taxes. This is what they are for to help us in tough times. We need to re-appropriate the 53 cents of every dollar of our taxes we spend on the defense budget and use it for the American people. We can also claw back the trillions of dollars we just gave away to those who don't need it and distribute it wisely.

[video:https://youtu.be/QeglgSWKSIY]

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147907/let-america-be-america-again

Tags:

Open Thread WPA

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Comments

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 7:00am

I'm having trouble

inserting the images I choose for the essay. Sorry all. Will see if I can figure it out.

Submitted by jakkalbessie on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 7:45am

Thanks for posting this and standing in

The WPA wa scca one of those great projects in American history. When traveling do like to find examples in cities I visit.

When I was young, we lived in a small oil camp in southeast Texas and twice a month were visited by the bookmobile which was an outgrowth of one of the projects of the WPA.

—

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 8:05am

My pleasure,

@jakkalbessie and thank you for stopping by. That is really interesting about the bookmobile visits. There are vestiges of WPA work around the country, I've encountered some in our National Parks. What a good idea to seek the work out in the cities you have visited.

Submitted by RantingRooster on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 10:16am

There's a good article

by JD Alt over at NewEconomicPerspectives.Org, How Big Does the Fire Need to Be?

Where did the dollars come from to make all this happen? Were they tax-dollars collected from the American people? Were they dollars borrowed from the banking industry and titans of finance? No. They were dollars issued by the sovereign government out of thin air—fiat dollars. As described by Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Woodin, the new dollars were “money that looked like money.” And so, as demonstrated by what the spending of it accomplished, it was money. (What Woodin meant by this was that the “Federal Reserve Bank Notes” which the central bank was authorized to issue—as needed—by the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 looked exactly like the old “Federal Reserve Notes” they replaced, except for one tiny detail: they could not be redeemed for gold.)

A list of the legislation created under FDR's New Deal can be found here.

—

C99, my refuge from an insane world. #ForceTheVote

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 12:05pm

Thanks for that article

@RantingRooster , it does seem to be the case doesn't it? We have seen how readily and easy it was to cough up the necessary funds in 2008 and then again just last month (a trillion here, a trillion there,) to bail out the banks etc.. But when it comes to bailing out the people, well, somehow we can't find the money.

Submitted by janis b on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:54pm

Thank you for the link, RR

@RantingRooster

It's truly inspiring to read through the list of constructive projects and forward thinking vision. How humane and life-enhancing.

Submitted by ovals49 on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 8:32am

Money is just a medium of exchange,

@RantingRooster @RantingRooster
the value of which depends on what people believe it is worth. While 1933 brought about an uncoupling of the dollar from the value of gold, perhaps the shift in the social contract that ensued was even more significant.

As a nation we were in a real pickle, thanks to the avarice of those who sat at the top of the economic food chain. These “fat cats” weren’t about to cough up all their ~~hard earned profits~~ ill gotten gains to rescue the rubes they had just finished fleecing. Capitalism had brought us to the precipice but it was Socialism that came to the rescue. The fiat currency, backed only by faith and trust, continued as an acceptable medium of exchange because it was needed and it was for the benefit of our collective well being, for all of us, not just the monied class.

Our brief foray into socialist policies ended with WWII, once again turning the reins of government and our economy over to those of exceptional wealth. So here we are, facing a very similar problem.

To borrow a quip from Yogi Berra; “It’s deja vue all over again.”

—

“What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do.”
-Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Submitted by jakkalbessie on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 10:33am

Road to Chisos basin

In Big Bend National park was built by the CCC. Every trip I marvel at the lasting legacy from the WPA this road is as well as what a job it was to create.

—

Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 11:58am

There are some nice historic photos

@jakkalbessie of the road in the Chisos Basin that you are talking about;
https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/photosmultimedia/historicphotos.htm

Submitted by janis b on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:58pm

Hopefully the park's wildlife and landscape

@randtntx

are enjoying some peace and quiet.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 6:58pm

Yes

@janis b all those pesky people can't visit the park for the time being. The critters get a breather.

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 12:02pm

My dad, a dyed-in-the-wool Republican always

@jakkalbessie

pointed out the CCC projects on our yearly camping trips. It was part of the fabric of the world we grew up in, wasn’t it?

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 12:34pm

I love it

@Lily O Lady your conservative dad saw the value. See? We're all on the same side.

Submitted by studentofearth on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 11:08am

Any government work program on improving the capacity

of our communities and individuals to be self sufficient would be beneficial. It would balance out our current trend of looking outward for self-worth, financial resources and expertise. Advertising and marketing for most of our lifetime has been directed at needing a shortterm solution for specific product, business solution or social viewpoint to bring values to our lives.

One challenge will be to avoid any program from being dominated by our current crop of business and NGOs (non-government agencies) experienced at siphoning off government money away from local communities and neighborhoods. Then need to methods to avoid the mergers of local self sustaining systems into larger operations.

As an example the cycle of mergers has been a problem for our rural telecommunications(internet and mobile service) and medical community. There is a lack of service in an area, government money is provided, business model created, sold or merged into larger entity, not profitable enough, services closed and then lack of service in an area; repeat cycle.

We need a shift in focus from spending most of our tax dollars on the the potential of destruction to creating and maintaining healthy communities. Thanks for the OT.

—

Still yourself, deep water can absorb many disturbances with minimal reaction.
--When the opening appears release yourself.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 12:32pm

That is a major challenge

@studentofearth , preventing the corruption that is always just waiting for an opportunity. The FDR programs had to be on the lookout for that as well. It's a never-ending battle.
Thanks for your comment, have a good one.

Submitted by magiamma on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 11:22am

morning tandrntx

And all

There still are wpo bridges here along the coast highway. Gorgeous designs. And art in all the big cities. A work project would be a lifesaver.

Thanks for hosting r. Have a good one.

—

Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 12:25pm

Morning

@magiamma , those bridges are amazing. Imagine building those.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=WPA+pacific+highway+bridges&t=hk&iax=images&ia...
Thanks for stopping by, have a good one.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 11:24am

To enhydra lutris,

I double-posted this essay and thankfully some kind person deleted the duplicate however your comment was under the deleted essay. I agree with your comment and think that it would be so great to have free nationwide broadband. If coronavirus keeps reoccurring, free broadband will be essential for many reasons. Thanks for your input and sorry about deleting you.

Submitted by Granma on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 11:25am

I love the art you posted

Thank you. I've always been impressed with the WPA and the CCC. The scope and variety of the projects they took on and completed. I don't know who conceived them one of the things that impresses me is that things got started right away. They did not spend years talking about it. They got busy. The government itself ran the programs.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 12:14pm

So glad you liked the art.

@Granma It was such an interesting government program. Unfortunately WWll made these programs unnecessary, and we switched gears from building and creating to building our war machine. So, unfortunately, we never did the hard work of figuring out how to build a thriving society without depending on war. Thanks for stopping by.

Submitted by Granma on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 2:07pm

I am appalled at the poor grammar

@randtntx in my comment. It is too late to be editing now, but I had better not comment in the mornings until I have enough coffee in me to be all the way awake. Thank you figuring out what I was trying to say.

Yes, it was much better to be building than destroying.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 1:17pm

Good Mourning, I have an OT question

with you all being old-timers and well versed in online research, I just wonder how to retrieve information about persons, more or less in political life of Germany, that is from around 1996 to 2005. I realized that all the things I know personally from those folks are nowhere to be found on the internet. I am really not amused about it. Wikipedia is a flop or I am nuts. All the dirt is cleaned out, lost, as an archive it is useless, imho.

So sad.

Have a good weekend all and don't give up.

Submitted by Granma on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 2:02pm

You might try a search on the

@mimi internet archive site. If they were public figures, there may be news reports or speeches or something preserved there.

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 2:46pm

Thanks, I will try.

@Granma
but most scandals I am aware of, were never posted or captured in digital format. I would need non-ditigal archives like the National Archives in College Park and even then only if some reporter had gotten knowledge of the scandal and written about it in the Washington Post, for example.

But I give it a try. Strangely enough I found stuff always in tape and paper archives. I love those.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:15pm

Good afternoon

@mimi , I think wikipedia probably is a flop. Sorry, I can't help.
It sounds as if things are better on your side of the pond than they are here. Hope that is the case and that you are doing well.

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 5:42am

Many things are easier and better on our side of the pond

@randtntx
but that doesn't mean that the devilish thingies are not crawling in under the cover. It's all here ready to take action whenever someone can profit from it. Well, that's just me and my view, 99.9 percent of the population can't see it like I do. So my views are not relevant and (in the views of locals here) not reality based.

Definitely from what I read it is much easier here especially condisering the health care providing institutions. In my little rich town near Hamburg, people are very spoiled. But the lockdowns got them and little by little reality thinks in that it will hit them badly too.

Hanging between the ponds is kind of going to give me some muscle and heart aches. I wished I had a home.

I pray for my American brothers and sisters every day. It just might help. We (my son and I) just leave it up to the hands of God these days. We are not religious, but we feel God any day.

Thanks for Chuck Berry and Clapton and Buffie Saint-Marie. I love them all and remember having listened to them and or heard of them way back, when I hang around on TOP. I have to say that I unfortunately (or may be luckily) don't remember anything from there, neither my own misfitting comments nor those of others (just vaguely a couple of them left some traces) I know this must be very insulting to those who post here and did post over there way back. Just wanted to apologize for that. My brain has its difficulties...

Stay well. And thanks for all you do here. I have all my books over here which I got over there. Among others a lot from Ojibwe. I wished those books and me were somehow still over at your side of the pond. But life has its own rivers running through unknown territory.

Ok, thanks a lot for your OT. Very comforting to read you.

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 2:44pm

You're right

@mimi , devilish thingies can always be counted on to be the very best opportunists. Perhaps where you are they are still compelled to be sneaky, here they have dispensed with any pretense of hiding their crimes.

You're welcome for the Buffy Sainte-Marie etc. She's been a favorite since way back in my youth.

I understand the heart-ache of not being where one wants to be and that is many times magnified if you are separated from people who are dear to you. I suppose there are as many ways to cope with that situation as there are people. Or possibly there is no way to satisfactorily cope. I'm not sure.

Thank you for your good thoughts and prayers for America. We certainly can use them. I'm not sure about their effect but I like to believe they are effective and so I will.

You mentioned Ojibway, I have one lone book on the Ojibway people. I'm not sure about the quality of the information inside that book, I will have to pull it out to see. I'm glad wherever you are that you have your books with you. I regard them as a comfort and I'm assuming you do as well. We certainly are in unknown territory, its nice to have a book or two (or several hundred) along for the trip.

Thank you for your fine and very kind comment. Best to you mimi and take good care of yourself.

Submitted by Granma on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 2:17pm

Homeless Question

I went up to hospital this week for some imaging. I saw as many as 4 times the number of homeless peoples' tents as I have ever seen before. In some places, small villages of tents, too many to count.
Every small piece of ground seemed to have at least a few tents on it.

Are any of you seeing more tents and encampments of homeless people in your area recently?

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 3:26pm

Yes, more homeless.

@Granma hi there, yes mimi and I were just chatting about it the other day, sort of. It was after watching Richard Wolfe video talking about the future economic whatever. I could post headlines every day from our local newspaper, but it seems the same everywhere. ouchy

Ye olde bike shoppe has closed is a link to my comment in the OT, and mimi's follow-up. I'd like to know what other people see too.

peace and love

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:21pm

I have not seen more homeless people

@Granma but I haven't been going to the inner part of the city lately. I'm not a very good source right now. I do know our food pantries were hit very hard by record numbers who needed assistance. We made the national news because of it.

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 3:15pm

Coit Tower murals

Hi C99ers. Thanks randtntx. Cheers. This was gonna be a drive-by comment but ... yeah. No. Happy Saturday!

I was glad to say goodbye Columbus when the statue left Pioneer Park. It wasn't there when my uncle was painting his mural, probably hanging out with Diego Rivera, and it isn't there now. Great!
http://www.coittower.org/artists/bios.html

Ben Cunningham came to San Francisco in 1924 from Colorado by way of the University of Nevada in Reno, where he studied architecture. He stopped “temporarily” at the California School of Fine Arts, and eventually abandoned architecture. After Coit Tower, he was an assistant art director for the Northern California Federal Art Project. His work at the Tower reflects his tapestry designing experience. Of his art, fellow artist Ralph Chesse said that “Cunningham was a good designer and meticulous draftsman in his decorations.” In an article that Cunningham wrote on government funding of the arts for the San Francisco Art Association in 1937, he said that no artist's contribution can be considered relative. “The difference between being able to paint and not being able to paint is absolute. From there on the morale of the artist is of primary importance to his work.” He is remembered by his friends as a sensitive, intellectually insightful artist.

My aunt Patsy was a payroll clerk or something like that, for "the government" in San Francisco. That is how she met and then later married my uncle Ben, after they moved to NYC.

Patsy and Ben Cunningham

This is a photo I took of part of the mural whilst on a docent tour to the inside top of Coit Tower. The mural is called Outdoor Life:

Outdoor Life

Uncle Ben also got paid to paint the mural of the Ukiah Post Office, moved to a museum there after the P.O. closed.

Resources of the Soil
---
what's old is new again
outdoor life
peace and love

edit: need glasses. lol

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:41pm

Thanks for the Coit Tower website

@eyo , it's really fun. I'm going to have to spend a bit of time there. I read a few bios of the artists including Ben Cunningham. Very cool.
I know this is trivial but I love Patsy Cunningham's dress in that photo. She looks great in it as well.
Thanks for the examples of the WPO art as well!

Submitted by mimi on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 3:18pm

Insanity my name is Blackamoor

well, I can't stand these anti-racism hypocrites any longer.
[video:https://youtu.be/uO2l83j9lVI]
I just have ranting thoughts and I better keep them to myself.

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:26pm

Wonderful to see you back, Eyo! :-D Stay safe. EOM

Mollie

—

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:39pm

Thank you for today's OT, randtntx. Agree that the WPA

program was wonderful.

Didn't know until my older Brother told me, that our Father, an educator for a number of years, had also been a WPA Administrator.

(he was an adult during the Great Depression - born in 1905 - he was in his forties, pushing fifty, when we were born)

Anyhoo, it was a part of my Father's biography, that I'd either never heard, previously, or, didn't remember.

Everyone have a lovely weekend. Be safe.

Mollie

"The leaders of this new movement are replacing traditional liberal beliefs about tolerance, free inquiry, and even racial harmony with ideas so toxic and unattractive that they eschew debate, moving straight to shaming, threats, and intimidation."
~~Matt Taibbi, The American Press Is Destroying Itself, June 12, 2020

"I know, I know. All passion; no street smarts."
~~Captain West, 1992 Rob Reiner/Aaron Sorkin Movie, A Few Good Men

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die, I want to go where they went.”
~~Will Rogers, Actor & Social Commentator (1856-1950)

—

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by janis b on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:46pm

Hi randtntx

Thank you for standing in and posting your first essay. You must have enjoyed exploring such a vibrant time in America’s history. Thank you for extending the appreciation of that unique time. There’s so much talk today, and so little constructive action.

I thought this was interesting from the liner notes of Woody Guthries album, ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’

I've lived in these duststorms just about all my life. (I mean, I tried to live). I met millions of good folks trying to hang on and to stay alive with the dust cutting down every hope. I am made out of this dust and out of this fast wind and I know that I'm going to win out on top of both of them if only my government and my office holder will help me. I wrote up these eight songs here to try to show you how it is to live under the wild and windy actions of the great duststorms that ride in and out and up and down.[10]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl_Ballads

Thanks again, and have a good weekend all.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 5:56pm

Hi Mollie,

It's interesting that your father was a WPO administer. I wonder how hard it was to administer the program and what kind of opposition, if any, they encountered. I have read that there was a big effort to be strict about the rules primarily to avoid accusations of corruption.
Thanks for stopping by and stay safe as well.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 6:43pm

Hi Janis

I've known bits and pieces about Woody Guthrie my whole life but knew his songs mostly through Pete Seeger. I heard Seeger perform Guthrie's songs more than anyone else. I didn't know about this whole album (the first concept album) of dust-bowl songs. Fascinating.
I just had to go and find this song; Dust Pneumonia Blues ...Amazing.

Thanks Janis, take good care.

Submitted by janis b on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 7:01pm

What a frightening time that must have been

@randtntx

for those living in the dust bowl. It's also a reflection of the tragedy that results from disregarding the environment.

Stay well and strong.

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 2:54pm

I agree

@janis b @janis b that the 1930's must have been a frightening time. I think we can relate to that era. It baffles me though that we did not learn the lesson about disregarding the environment.
Thanks for the good wishes...sending the same to you.

Submitted by aliasalias on Sat, 07/18/2020 - 10:12pm

My father worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps

A guy writing a book on the CCC based on his interviews with those that worked on it, my father got interviewed by him and I only wish he'd come by a few years earlier but looking at the transcript I see my father still remembered a lot of that experience.

I was told the book is part of the LBJ Library(Univ.of Texas at Austin) and some day I'll read the other stories, but he he told my father that at the end of all interviews he asked the same question, it was basically what do they think would have happened if FDR's New Deal program had not happened.

Apparently almost all of them gave a similar answer to my Father's that could be boiled down to "I don't know, because there was nothing else".

My father said at that time all the jobs were in the City, but when gets to Fort Worth he finds himself part of a large number of people that also had to leave the farm.
That fact was driven home when someone would come looking for workers waiting around the hiring hall and it was nothing more than who can do this work, but more importantly who would work for the lowest wage.

So apparently he was happy for a chance with the CCC, he said he met City guys that had never done the kind of labor required. They didn't know how to 'string a fence', or had ever heard of a 'cattle guard' much less how to put them up correctly and he ended up teaching the city guys how to do many of the jobs that were part of anyone's life growing up on a farm.
My father also said when WW2 broke outhe could easily adjust to the hours and operations of a camp because it was identical to life in the CCC camps because the same military model was used.
Just like with the CCC in the early morning when the bugle blew they had to get up,wash, get dressed, make up their bunks in the same way as the military did for inspection every morning and very quickly be inside and seated in the 'mess tent'.

One more interesting thing was that he was required to write a letter and send home a portion of his pay every month, which I heard was really appreciated even tho it looks like pittance now it could do something back then,and (without having to find that transcript) it was either six or twelve dollars.

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 3:53pm

Good question

@aliasalias ,

what would have happened if FDR's New Deal program had not happened.

with a scary answer;

I don't know, because there was nothing else.

Thanks for posting the story about your Dad. I'm finding I did not learn much about this era in school. It was a really interesting time.

A guy writing a book on the CCC based on his interviews with those that worked on it, my father got interviewed by him and I only wish he'd come by a few years earlier but looking at the transcript I see my father still remembered a lot of that experience.

I was told the book is part of the LBJ Library(Univ.of Texas at Austin) and some day I'll read the other stories, but he he told my father that at the end of all interviews he asked the same question, it was basically what do they think would have happened if FDR's New Deal program had not happened.

Apparently almost all of them gave a similar answer to my Father's that could be boiled down to "I don't know, because there was nothing else".

My father said at that time all the jobs were in the City, but when gets to Fort Worth he finds himself part of a large number of people that also had to leave the farm.
That fact was driven home when someone would come looking for workers waiting around the hiring hall and it was nothing more than who can do this work, but more importantly who would work for the lowest wage.

So apparently he was happy for a chance with the CCC, he said he met City guys that had never done the kind of labor required. They didn't know how to 'string a fence', or had ever heard of a 'cattle guard' much less how to put them up correctly and he ended up teaching the city guys how to do many of the jobs that were part of anyone's life growing up on a farm.
My father also said when WW2 broke outhe could easily adjust to the hours and operations of a camp because it was identical to life in the CCC camps because the same military model was used.
Just like with the CCC in the early morning when the bugle blew they had to get up,wash, get dressed, make up their bunks in the same way as the military did for inspection every morning and very quickly be inside and seated in the 'mess tent'.

One more interesting thing was that he was required to write a letter and send home a portion of his pay every month, which I heard was really appreciated even tho it looks like pittance now it could do something back then,and (without having to find that transcript) it was either six or twelve dollars.

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 8:46am

Late to the party...

Alabama had several new dealers...like Aubrey Williams
https://peoplepill.com/people/aubrey-willis-williams/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Willis_Williams

As well as my political mentors...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Foster_Durr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Durr

Thanks for the OT randtntx

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 5:13pm

Thank you for those links

@Lookout . Just amazing.
Against what seems like difficult odds, Aubry Williams procured (received does not seem the right word) a good education and then worked in the FDR administration as Assistant Federal Relief Administrator. Then he went on to become the head of the National Youth Administration where he appointed a 26 year-old LBJ to be the Youth Director of TX.

He later (while he was dying from cancer) wrote LBJ a letter asking him to not get "bogged down in a hopeless mess in South East Asia". If only LBJ had listened.

The Durrs were also incredible people. The story about Virginia Durr changing her outlook on race because of a 'rotating tables policy' at Wellesley is instructive. What the couple accomplished later is very impressive.

These are the kind of people we need now. I know they're out there.
Thanks again Lookout, I love this history.

Submitted by Lookout on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 5:25pm

It was my good fortune

@randtntx

to meet them. After Cliff's death, I lived with Virginia for a year. What an enriching time meeting everyone from Studs Terkel to RFK Jr (working on his senior thesis) as well as an array of journalists and family friend Decca, Jessica Mitford.

They all helped shape my world view. I feel privileged to have had these experiences.

hope you're doing well given Texas situation.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by janis b on Thu, 07/23/2020 - 2:27am

What interesting life stories

@Lookout

of dealers or mentors. Thanks Lookout.

Submitted by randtntx on Sun, 07/19/2020 - 1:35pm