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Fight It Out: 1937

        "Sure sounds like trouble," Tip muttered, frowning.
October 1937. "Boy reading in bedroom. Note lack of proper bed clothing. Home of A.O. Ryland, farmer who has quit farming. Near Williston, North Dakota." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

        "Sure sounds like trouble," Tip muttered, frowning.

October 1937. "Boy reading in bedroom. Note lack of proper bed clothing. Home of A.O. Ryland, farmer who has quit farming. Near Williston, North Dakota." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Populate and perish

And how many parts got re-populated in the first place can be read in Dee Brown's "Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow".

Rural depopulation success

This is why depopulation of rural areas is a success story. Even as late as mid-20th century, the average farm family had one-third the annual income of the average urban one. It's a reaction to what North Dakota historian Elwyn Robinson called the "Too Much Mistake," too many people on land that could not support them. By leaving the farms, they were able to improve their lives by moving to the city, and it left farms behind that could consolidate the land to make them large enough to make a living from the low level of per-acre profitability. I'm a retired North Dakota farmer, and I used to say that North Dakota has three exports: agricultural products, energy, and children. North Dakota always has low unemployment because it exports its unemployed to the Twin Cities, Denver, Seattle, and other out of state metros. Grow up in North Dakota, and it's going to be pretty certain that at some point you'll have to leave.

[The book "Bad Land," by Jonathan Raban, is an engrossing account of the rise and fall of agriculture here. - Dave]

Re: So what's he reading

Five Star Western Novelets [v1 #5, September 1937] (Blue Ribbon Magazines, Inc., 10¢, pulp)
Details supplied by Peter Rogner & John Locke from Table of Contents.
6 · Locked Horns · G. W. Barrington · nv
39 · Gunsmoke Reckoning · Guy Arnold · ss
52 · Law for the Lawless · Larry Harris · nv
73 · Range War · Cliff Campbell (by Abner J. Sundell) · nv
94 · Fight It Out · Oscar Schisgall · nv

Five Star Western Novelets

It appears that young Clarence may be reading from the Sept 1937 issue of Five Star Western Novelets, with the story "Fight it Out!" by Oscar Schisgall being one of the five stories in the issue.

[Bravo! How did you figure that out? - Dave]

Clarence Vernon Ryland 1919-2001

Oldest son of Albin O. Ryland. Mr. Ryland was no longer farming, and would die the following year -- June 1, 1938.

The tie that binds

Old wooden chairs held together with wire were still in use in my Manitoba village community hall during the very early 1950s. Just the way things were back then -- believe it or not.

One thing one won't see in a current boy's room

would be an ashtray on the table. Chances are not even in the kitchen, the living room, parents' bedroom. Maybe on the porch.

Warm cap

I noticed a wool 'Stormy Kromer' cap on the bottom shelf of the table next to the bed.

So what's he reading?

The story, whose title gives its name to this post, is by Oscar Somebody.

A true North Dakotan

He's got his ear-lapper hat on the shelf below the table.

Note the strength

It wasn't the bedding that caught my eye, it was the strength in his right forearm. He's done physical work at an early age. I know.

Musta been mail order

Looks like we found a customer for that overage of chimneys at the bodega.

The Fall of the Year (1911)

Book by by Dallas Lore Sharp:

Stirring accounts of the author's autumn adventures in the out of doors, interspersed with specific suggestions for tramps afield in the fall of the year providing things to look for and hear and do as the world turns toward winter. Includes six bits of sound advice about going afield at any season that are not to be missed!

Available on Amazon.com

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