Gene Ralston

Broschiertes Buch

Okie Boy-The Great Depression and World War Ii

Beschreibung

Not everyone who lived on an Oklahoma farm during the 1930s, the time known for the "dust bowl," abandoned their farms and headed for California. Although many suffered crop failures and financial ruin, there were just as many or more who were able to make it through. The dust bowl, coupled with the Great Depression which struck America at the same time, resulted in hardship and suffering, both for the farmers who went looking for a new life, and for those who were able to stick it out. This book is a story about a family who "stuck it out." Gene Ralston tells the story of the lives of a family of seven who lived in a two-room house, scratching out their lives on a dry-land farm, running a few cattle and several hundred White Leghorn chickens. Without running water, electricity or a telephone, the family existed on a survival level, gradually growing out of it as their fortunes improved. Having survived the dust bowl, the family was dumped into the rationing and shortages we all experienced during World War Two. This book is about people. Real live people, some with real, live problems, such as one epileptic brother, another who was an alcoholic, some real characters, such as the real live cowboy, Gene's Uncle George Ralston, larger than life and a legend in his own time. This book is filled with these people, and tells the inside story of them and of Gene and his family.

Autor

Gene Ralston was born February 16, 1933 on a farm just outside of Binger, Oklahoma, the fourth child of five children. This family of seven lived in a two-room farmhouse, and Gene and his younger brother Jerry attended school in a one-room schoolhouse for two years. During this period, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and for the next five years the family experienced the shortages and tribulations that all farm families suffered, including the rationing of sugar, gasoline, tires and shoes, and price controls on almost everything considered life necessities. Gene survived these adventures, graduated from high school. He enlisted in and served honorably for thirty years in the United States Navy, during which he earned and was awarded a Bachelor's degree in Government from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He retired from the Navy in March, 1982 as a Commander. With a seemingly inexhaustible memory, Commander Ralston writes with great detail the physical description of this one-room school and its associated equipment, the subsequent schools he attended, the details of farm life, including laundry day on the farm, the butchering of cattle and swine, and the canning of beef, pork, fruits and vegetables. Gene and Carolyn, his wife of 55 years, reside in Lemoore, California.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Trafford Publishing
• Seitenzahl: 158
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. September 2008
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 216mm x 140mm x 9mm
• Gewicht: 208g
• ISBN-13: 9781425155421
• ISBN-10: 1425155421
• Artikelnr.: 25542947