Hick from the Sticks: Texas Farm Life in the Thirties Book

Farmers across the South struggled to survive during the Great Depression years of the thirties. Rural folks worked small family farms with manual implements and horse-drawn equipment to eke out a living for large families. Children toiled beside parents to provide a roof over their heads, clothing on their backs, and food for their stomachs.

People on the farm endured a primitive existence without electricity, running water, indoor bathrooms, automobiles, air conditioning, telephones, and other conveniences we take for granted. Children attended tiny rural elementary schools and rode buses great distances on narrow dirt roads to attend high schools.

Author Herschel Hill is a product of that thirties culture, and he describes his adolescent years. He shares his experiences on a small family farm, in a one-room one-teacher school, in a small country church, and in a culture rife with racial discrimination. He also discusses folks' sacrifices during World War II and the impact of that brutal bloody war on rural life in America.