Letters 3 from the 30s (*)

Evergreen 252

Rockwell, Alabama. 650200

11/26/1931

Dear Jim:

How are you doing? Her in Rockwell things continue going worse each day. Now the problems started at school. The school was the place where all my problems disappeared and where I could relax and be happy, but now it changed; the great depression affected our way of living forcing me to work after classes to gain some extra money for sustaining.

At school, several boys as me have to work and some of them had to leave the school, like my friend Jack, who works with his father now trying to get some crops to sell from the desolated fields beaten by the sandstorms. From thirty-eight boys we were at the start of the year now we remain seventeen, and every day we are less.

Apart from that, there’s no motivation to go to school anymore, the building is ¡s filthy and the windows are broken by the storms with pieces of rock. Some families are staying at the school at nights because they don’t have another place to go. At least the school is big and the playground is still usable. The teachers are in the same situation than us, some days they stay at home and when they come to school, they just lie around and leave us luckily some work. They don’t even correct the works, they just put A to us and tell us that we have done well, but it won’t help to fix the situation.

The biggest entertainment we got is to watch out the window, because in every moment a sudden storm could come and damage us. At home we just try to rest, because the days are awful and very tires. Hope things get better for my next letter.

Sincerely, Bart

Letters 4 from the 30s

Evergreen 252

Rockwell, Alabama. 650200

12/01/1931

Dear Jim:

This is the last letter that I send you and I going to tell you what is happening in our country now. Our country is living an economic depression. Also there are a lot of conflicts between white people and black people, these is because the black people want to have the same rights that the whites. All the newspapers and radios talk about the same things and conflicts, all the countries fell with the fell of our country there is like an domino effect, especially the countries that depends of our country like Chile that is the country that lose more in the economic crisis.

There are also a lot of new technology items that change the world and each day is a new item that revolutionizes the entire world.

Sincerely, Bart

Letters 2 from the 30s

Evergreen 252

Rockwell, Alabama. 650200

10/15/1931

Dear Jim:

Things continue badly here in Rockwell, we believe this is never stopping. The storms continue beating our homes and tearing out the crops, now we don’t have many chances to gain money.

Before this problem fell on us, I went to school like every normal boy, guess now I’m normal too staying at home… I ate my lunch and studied to some day maybe go to college, but now, all is different. Now you must think I’m lying on my home, I wish I could do that, I must work in the house to help my two big sisters on the house matters like cooking and cleaning, when we have things to eat, some days we just get along with water that we have stored for difficult situation. And when the week has gone too bad for us to continue, I must go to the street looking for things to eat or money to pass the day, sometimes the people need help in some work and I help them and my payment is some pieces of bread that I share with my family.

It’s difficult, but my father’s day is further worse. Before the crash, he was a farmer and made the living out for that, and we never complained, we had all we need, my sisters and my mother. Now my father prays all night for some thing to grow in the field, because the sandstorms had destroyed all his vegetables. He wakes up at 5am to start seeking for someone to employ him for the day to gain some money for buying food, and when he doesn’t find someone to help him, he just go around the city asking for food or picking what he can from the garbage bins.

And mother, I don’t know now, the last time I saw her she said that she was going to work to get us out from that, after that I never saw her again. The last thing I knew from her was that she was working in a house in the county on the side and that she would come back soon with the necessary money to go to a big city for better opportunities.

I remember that I enjoyed playing with my dog and my sisters, but it died a week ago from rubbish. Now I enjoy to sleep and being with my family when I can, in winter to get warm also. I must enjoy them while I can.

Sincerely, Bart

Letters 1 from the 30s

Evergreen 252

Rockwell, Alabama. 650200

09/20/1931

Dear Jim:

It has been a hard time to look for some paper to write you this letter; we need all the material we can get to repair the holes in the roof and walls and using paper for writing is a thing we cannot do all days, but I needed to write this for you to know the condition in which we are living here in Rockfell.

Last months have been horrible, the great crash affected us a lot because now our crops are worthless and apart from that, no one wants to buy nothing. Furthermore, the sandstorms had beaten up our home and our whole neighbourhood leaving complete families below the sky.

First, I must describe mi house, or well, what is left of it. First of all, our “door” is made of newspapers that remember us everyday of our condition; the windows are not more than holes in the walls that don’t let the light in because they are also closed due to the absence of glass. In the summer the air is suffocating inside, and in winter is freezing, despite that it is an adobe house, that prevents the great temperature oscillations, because the adobe left by the storms id very small, the rest of the house is of recycled materials like newspapers, plastic, old clothes and even with bathroom paper; and we must continue closing holes because also the people in the neighbourhood tries to enter and steal things.

The neighbours aren’t better than us, they are always complaining of rats in the houses, because they don’t have the luck that we have. Their walls are with holes and they don’t have materials to fix them, so the rats  enter and leave the entire place filthy and for worse, eat the food.

I’ll write you soon, now I have to work


Sincerely, Bart

Podcast Chapter 4: TKM

http://www.mediafire.com/?cmtk1gd239pfk5t