Working the Fields At Thirteen: A Memoir

Jack Shields and his family caught a Greyhound bus and took Route 66 all the way to California in 1944—and they didn’t look back. They arrived at a government-run farm labor camp where their loved ones were staying. At the camp, for as little as five dollars a month, you could rent a clean place to live that had electricity and running water. There were even community bathrooms. Once there, Shields and his older brother went right to work, first landing jobs at an alfalfa field and then moving on to whatever field work they could find. Since they did not have transportation, it was not always easy, but they consistently found a way to put money into their pockets. Shields started the eighth grade in 1944, and by then attitudes toward Okie children had changed, because with World War II, there were plenty of jobs and few workers. Step back in time and get a snapshot of the social history and culture of rural California in the 1940s as Shields looks back at Working the Fields at Thirteen.