Bill Ganzel. Raymond Turpen and Walter Ballard. Hardeman County, near Goodlett, Texas, July 1979

"Before that picture we had a farm rented. We had teams. But when the tractors come in, these landlords wanted all the land to farm themselves. That’s what I blame on losing the place. I started on WPA [Works Projects Administration] in ’36 and worked on and off for a couple of years for $21 a month. It was good experience. But these farmers, waiting for their government checks to come in, why, they’d fuss about us working on the WPA. They wanted us to lay them shovels down, didn’t think we was earning our pay. Well, if they’d got out there and stayed with us all day, they’d have thought they was earning their pay."

—RAYMOND TURPEN

"The hardest work I’ve ever done was on the WPA, the hardest and the heaviest work. A lot of what we built is still around. I used to ride the rails looking for work. I loved it; it’ll get in your blood. You’re not agoing anywhere; you don’t care, you just ride. It’s paid for. You’re going to eat in the hobo jungles, that was more than you was doing at home, probably. First time I caught a freight was in Chadron, Nebraska, I and another boy. We was scared. We seen a freight sitting, and there was so many people on it, it looked like blackbirds. We was afraid we’d get throwed off or beat up. But we went over and got on, and believe it or not, when we got ready to go that old brakeman hollered, "All aboard!’ Then we felt at ease. It wasn’t always like that. I been hijacked by them railroad bulls [hired guards] in the yards, and they get rough. See, there was so many of us on the rails, they couldn’t let you congregate in one town.

—WALTER BALLARD