'Till Them Eagles Grin

The years between the stock market crash of 1929 and the end of World War II in 1945 were the years of the Great Depression. Nearly 13 million people, about 25 percent of the work force was unemployed. Many became homeless and took refuge in makeshift shanty communities called Hoovervilles. The decade between 1930 and 1940 saw severe droughts, floods, and high temperatures. The resulting Dust Bowl sent migrates west to California. Young people took to hoboing, riding the rails and living in hobo jungles. The administration of President Franklin Roosevelt took action with many social programs, but recovery was slow. This is the story of a few of those people, their good times and bad. It is a story of a young man's brush with organized crime, another's life jumping freights and picking fruit, an aspiring blues musician encountering racism both in the north and the south, and two young women who will find and then lose love. It tells the story of the eagles on the silver dollar who will someday grin―but the cost will be great.