2591 Days since retiring July 1, 2005!

"The road to HELL is paved with GOOD intentions"
One of my mother’s favorite sayings. How wise she was and how stupid I was to not appreciate the wisdom until after she passed.

Read on and fall sound asleep

The rehash entry last night, sorta of best of manor, got me to thinking about Mom and Dad and how lucky we four were to have them as parents. Then I opened a email from the Texas State Historical Association containing their history tidbit of this day in history.

Bracero program supplies labor during World War II

August 4, 1942

On this day in 1942, the United States government signed the Mexican Farm Labor Program Agreement with Mexico. Managed by several government agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, as a temporary, war-related measure to supply much-needed workers during the early years of World War II, the bracero (Spanish for "arm-man," or manual laborer) program continued uninterrupted until 1964. The agreement guaranteed a minimum wage of thirty cents an hour and humane treatment of Mexican farmworkers in the United States. During the first five years of the program, Texas farmers chose not to participate in the restrictive accord, opting to hire farmworkers directly from Mexico who entered the United State illegally. The abundant supply of labor brought into the United States legally finally enticed Texans to participate fully in the program. More than 4.5 million entered the United States during the twenty-two years of the program. Most never returned. Mexican agricultural workers, considered an unlimited supply of cheap labor, have been pawns to a host of economic, political, social, and humanitarian interests. Journalists such as Pauline Kibbe documented how poor wages, lack of educational opportunities for the children, malnutrition, poor sanitation, and discrimination have contributed to continued tension between Texas growers and migrant laborers and the federal government. Migrant workers have nonetheless continued to walk to the United States, legally or illegally.

To receive daily emails about the date in history use the link on the day-by-day page for the Texas State Historical Website.

Now without an Federal program to document and track these workers we have been flooded with between 11 and 20 million illegal aliens. Somehow I lost my grasp of the good intention part. I am sure it will come to me about 3 am.

I had planned (ticket reserved but not paid) on taking a bus trip to Oregon for the Robertson Reunion in Springfield. I changed my mind. I am still feeling too frail and washed out for the rigors of the trip. Money is tight with failing appliances and air conditioners overwhelming the repairman in SM. My wife is ill and distressed with a long term digestive track problem. My cat Rascal has now apparently come down with the opposite problem. Watching him strain and grunt when he tries to defecate is pitiful. I added a small, tiny, amount of cat laxative to his wet food but still no relief. My $11 cat seems to be approaching a $3000 level. When I remember how I used to mock people who spent a lot of money on their pets I flush all over.

For the last 3 months I have been helping index the 1940 Federal census. I indexed just over 30,000 names from the census. As a dedicated people watcher I got great pleasure out of trying to understand the life in 1940 where a household might have 8 or more sons and daughters with in-laws and lodgers living under the same roof. The census pages had lines for forty names. Sometimes a sheet would have only 2 or 3 households. I doubt any of us today can begin to comprehend living with 18 people under one roof with less than three bathrooms.

I indexed names from 26 states but did not get credit for Oregon, Idaho, Montana, or New Mexico. I did very few batches in those. The organization sponsoring and supporting the effort awarded all volunteers badges for each state we helped index.

Now that we have completed the 1940 Census I decided to continue indexing. I have chosen to help index the Texas marriage records from 1837 to 1977. Late last night I indexed the information for the marriage of Allen Labay to Mary Francis Malek. Allen Labay was one of my very favorite teachers. In fact he is one of only 2 that I admired at Tidehaven High School.

Well I have to finish and bath because I am taking our senior daughter and her son and senior daughter to see Midsummer Night dream at Winedale tomorrow afternoon. Her younger daughter is just returning from a mission trip to Guatemala and may not come with us.