Child of migratory workers

I have a picture of me and a little boyfriend when I was 3 years old, both of us smiling and covered with mud and dirt. We had so much mud on our faces you could hardly make us out. We weren't migratory children however. Just normal kids having fun in the dirt and mud. I even remember eating dirt as a child. Something about a mineral deficiency.

This child looks like she's been well cared for. She's been bathed recently and her clothes are rather clean. "Filthy" says in real need of cleaning and the word also has an undertone, as "nasty." Yes, it is unfortunate that child is at someone's work-place for her child-care but in this picture I say she's OK. I remember getting dirty and loving to play in mud. 55 yrs after those early memories I'm still able to get around and get dirty without any ill effects.

Dad was born in 1937 to migrant worker parents. He started picking about 5 yrs of age. Belle Glade Florida was one of their yearly picking destinations. When not living in migrant shacks at a farm they lived in the car traveling from state to state and farm to farm living at a subsistence level that we might call homelessness today.

Homeless rootless, "food insecure", uneducated and exploited, often living on flour and water biscuits and stolen cottonseed cake intended for cattle, they couldn't afford to eat the crops they picked. Husband, wife, and 4 kids being "dragged around from pillar to post" as a great-aunt put it. After the Depression there were a lot of folks living like this and they felt lucky to have that while at the same time painfully aware of their exploitation.

The child seems blissfully unaware of the social implications of his/her plight and looks like she/he is enjoying themselves and has at least 4 'toys' to play with. Only a couple of years before he/she will be next to their parents in the field stooping and picking and not going to school- ironically contributing to the family's financial and social advancement.

Sad Picture. . .I have a daughter about this age and for some reason, it hurt me see this. . .don't know why. Makes you wonder if she is still alive today?

Good observation. Whether it's "real" or not, it's missing the barrel.

It looks like half of a toy gun. Metal toys were cast in 2 half pieces and pinned together. I have no idea when they stopped doing that and started going to stamped metal. Then on to the plastic we know and love.

It looks like it might be a real gun that broke in half. The knife is definitely real.

Note the toy gun and knife (a toy? or Real?) on the step to the left. IS that a spoon laying atop the toy gun?