New Deal manual labor jobs shaped Bay Area workers lives and views

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_12072823

By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 04/04/2009 12:54:35 PM PDT

Sol Rubin was poor, jobless and just out of high school in 1933 when the Great Depression settled over his hometown of Kansas City, Mo., like a dark cloud.

Money was tight. Food was scarce. Sol's father left home to look for carpentry jobs.

So Sol's mom marched her skinny teenage son downtown for a physical with the only employer who seemed be hiring: a new federal outfit called the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Sol soon was headed west on a train to California, joining a massive effort by several federal agencies to build up and civilize California's vast forests, surging rivers, and emerging towns with roads, parks, trails, canals, bridges, schools and post offices.

For America in 1933, it was a New Deal.

For Rubin and others in federal job programs, it was the adventure of a lifetime, relief from poverty and a glimmer of hope while growing up in hard times.

They earned a dollar a day, lived in barracks and tents with young men from all over. They fought the recession with a pick, shovel, rock grinders and saws.

FULL story at link.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. And they're still doing that!

http://kcet.org/socal/2009/02/saving-the-corps.html