For many of them, this was their first time away from home.
The young men in the CCC learned fast that they
had to be willing to go to any camp in the United States.
In many of the tents and barracks one would see this poster.

 
 
Perhaps you"ll be sent to
a camp high in the mountains,
or down on the seashore,
out on the shady forest,
or on the sun-baked plains,
or back in the shady forests.
You may be near a town or
you may be far away from even
a village.
Work hard now.
And never forget that cooperation
is essential.

Hanging Rock visitors ctr - Photo by Lauren Caroll
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Marion James is reflected in a plaque with the names of men who worked at Camp 3422 in NC.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
(To Mr. Roosevelt)
By Raymond Kraus
Co. 1232, Olympia, WA
 
 
A pauper’s life we may have led.
And we died revolting for our bread;
We might have shed each other’s blood.
And we died face done in the mud.
 
 
But all because we have this man,
Whose only words are there: “I can!”
Our nation shall evolve on high,
And we shall have a brighter sky.
 
 
He gave to us the chance to say,
I’ve earned my bread and keep today,
The chance to smile, to toil, to sweat,
This damn depression this forget.
                                                                   
Happy Days, November 3, 1934 (National
newspaper of the CCC, Washington, D.C.) 

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CCC crew member loading a hole under a stump with dynamite, Lolo National Forest (Montana)

STUMPS

I hope that I shall never see,

A Stump outside the CCC;

A Stump whose wiry roots are found,

Deep in the earth's tenacious ground.

A stump at which I slave away,

All during a torride summer day,

Stumps are dug by guys like me

And others in the CCC.

 

D.E.M., Arcardia, RI

 

 

 


ROUND AND ROUND 
6:00 AM Rising Bugle 
6:15-7:00 Breakfast, followed by sick call
7:15 Police camp and draw tools 
7:30 Go to work
11:15 Return from work
12:00 Dinner 
1:00 Sick call 
1:15 Police camp 
1:30 Draw tools 
1:45 Go to work 
4:45 Return from work 
6: 00 Supper followed by the study program
10:00 Bed and lights out.

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Worth It
By Doc Towne
Co. 615, Estacada,OR 

My hands are sore an’ blistered,boys,
My bones are full of aches;
My elbow joints, they make a noise
Like an ungreased windmill makes.

How come? I been a choppin’ trees
A-hewin logs and such;
The kind of work that pleases
A C.C.C.very much.

I’ve got as bunk and windows, too,
With one that’s set just right;
For us to watch the moon rise
When work is through the night.

That ax has sure wore out my hand,
But, boys, my heart ain’t sore;
I’ll stand her there to meet me
Just out the bunkhouse door.  
                                          
But I’ve been just the same,
An’ up Clackamas Valley Draw;
Now stands Company 615
Best of them all.
 
Happy Days
September 22, 1934

                  S H O V E L

S – is for the spuds we got for breakfast.
H – is for the home we seldom see.
O – is for the onions that they feed us.
V -  is for this verse composed by me.
E -  is for the end of my enlistment.
L – is for the last they’ll see of me.
Put them all together the spell SHOVEL
The emblem of the CCC.

Fort Lewis CCC songbook, 1934

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CCC enrollees using picks and shovels, Maryland, 1933

 
 
 
 
What America and these men endured in the 1930's

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Run on Union Bank in New York in 1929

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The Dust Bowl in Oklahoma, 1934.

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Soup Line in Chicago

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Homeless man sleeping on a New York City pier

Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother depicts destitute
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pea pickers in California, centering on F Owens Thompson, a mother of seven children, age 32

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Homeless in San Francisco, 1936. Dorothea Lange

Another day, another dollar

                                              A million days and I’ll be a millionaire!                                                    

                                   American saying...from the CCC!