I own the movie "The Grapes of Wrath" on DVD, it is a great movie. The Great Depression was a brutal time in America. It certainly changed the course of my family tree. My Great Grandfather did not make it, he became an alcoholic after falling into poverty after being the Chief of Police of Denver, Colorado, and dining with the Governor of Colorado, etc. But my Great Grandmother succeeded with her own restaurant and tended to helping the family, etc.
We still have desperate people who come to California to pick fruit like my family did, only back during the Great Depression it was all Americans coming to California to pick fruit, it was people from Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and Kansas, and from Colorado, and other states, all poor and desperate coming to California to pick fruit. And back then, as was shown in "The Grapes of Wrath" they did not have Labor Unions, etc, the workers are lucky now and they have the United Farm Workers. So, when I buy California wine and Sunkist Oranges, etc, then I can be happy knowing that the workers are good Union workers who are paid fair and who are treated well.
Our agriculture here is a blessing, and Sunkist is increasing exports of oranges to China, etc, so that is good. We need to hook the desperate immigrants from our Southern Border up with the United Farm Workers, and they can have good honest work.
And now the descendants of the people from the Great Depression are the bosses on the farms, so maybe they are kinder and gentler and more empathetic. There is no shame in picking fruit for a living, and we need to make sure that the workers are respected and that they are treated well. And we need to make our immigrants legal so that they can join labor unions, and so that they can call the police in the case of an emergency, etc.
Salute,
Tony V.
