What was life like in 1930's after the migration?

Question

How was it in California was it crowded or bad. Please help and if you can leave some websites. Thank u.

Answer 1

My parents lived in California in the 1930s and they saw the Oakies come in during the 1930s, during the Great Depression. Generally California did not have nearly the horrible conditions that other Eastern and industrial states had. Their unemployment rate was seriously lower than the 25% in reached in some Eastern urban centers.

In addition, during the 1930s California was not the hugely populated state that it is today. There were perhaps only 1/3 of the people present then, as compared to now. Agriculture was the big thing in California and therefore there was always plenty of food.

However, having said all of this, the large farm owners (there really never was a family farm movement in California like there was in other states) invited people in the Dust Bowl (the Oakies) to come to California to help harvest the crops. There was no shortage of labor, but when there is excess supply then suddenly the cost of laborers goes down significantly and therefore the profit of the farm owners increased. John Steinbeck in his Nobel Prize winning novel "The Grapes of Wrath" talks about this. It is a terrific book, although it is very long.

For those Oakies who were invited west and came west, conditions could be horrendous. They were exploited and it was not unusual for their children to literally starve to death (not being under nourished like children in poverty are today ... that is, not getting their full dialy nutritional allowances ... with the Oakies, we are talking about truly starving to death).