2-902-572 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Calipatria, Imperial Valley. In FSA (Farm Security Administration) emergency migratory labor camp. Left Oklahoma December 11, 1937 with husband and two children and son-in-law. Ex-tenant farmers on third and fourths in cotton. Had fifty dollars when set out. Went to Phoenix, picked cotton and pulled bolls, made eighty cents a day with two people picking bolls. Stayed until school closed. Went to Idaho, picked peas until August, left McCarl with forty dollars "in hand." Went to Cedar City and Parowan, Utah, a distance of 700 miles. Picked peas through September. Went to Hollister, Calipatria. Picked peas through October. Left for Calipatria for early peas which froze. Now receiving FSA food grant and waiting for work to begin. "Back in Oklahoma we was sinkin.' You work your head off for a crop and then see it burn up. You live in debts that you can never get out of. This isn't a good life, but I say it's a better life than that was.".