A road crew building a country road (around 1930-1931)

The year is 1935.  Times are still hard.  Dale and Helen are living in rented rooms in Osceola, but still engaged in some farming activities.  They eventually select a farm they move to, is one-half mile north of the Weldon stock yards, where they take up full-time farming once again.  Their house lacks amenities we take for granted; they have to go to a neighbor’s house to use a telephone.  Dale takes some correspondence courses – probably for postal clerk.  The amount of collaborative work people did was quite impressive; farmers helped neighbors and relatives nearly as much as their own farms required.  Also, during the late summer, Dale worked for several weeks on a road crew to supplement his income.  As before, Dale’s diary entries are very short.  His limited writing space forced him to brevity, but it is still possible to capture the feel of harsh weather, hard labor-intensive work, and near poverty, while relishing the simple pleasures of good meals with family and friends.  When he writes about going “out home” or “up home” he means his parents’ home.

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