NBC's Bob Dotson reports on the Great Depression and the so-called "Dust Bowl Mona Lisa," Florence Thompson, who was made famous when photographer Dorothea Lange took her picture at a Nipomo, California migrant farm worker camp in 1936.
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I can't say that I ever met Mrs Thompson but I also can't say that I didn't. She doesn't look familiar in this video, but man, it was 55 or 60 years ago that I might have met her. While I did know she lived in Modesto, I didn't find out she lived in that particular trailer camp until just a few years ago after I moved out here.
That side of Modesto on the south bank of the Tuolumne River had a shitload of farm labor camps that were turned into trailer camps after the funding ran out. When I say trailer camp, I'm not talking about mobile homes, but tow-behind camper trailers. Anyways, a bunch of the Okie migrants stayed on, many of which were my mom's aunts and uncles in that one camp which was nicer than most. As I recall, there were maybe 40 trailers there and it was a pretty tight knit community in itself. Last time I was in there, during the early 2000s when I was doing outreach for the homeless with my ex, the place was full of dope fiends and thieves.
Anyways, any time we went to visit Mom's relatives back in the 1960s, she would just turn us loose to play with the grandkids of the older folks that lived there. When lunchtime rolled around, us kids ate with whoever we were playing with, so if the kids I was playing with were Mrs Thompson's grandkids I probably ate with them outside of her trailer. I'd like to think so, anyway.
Her gravesite and headstone HERE
