Or how your grandfathers handled unemployment.
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a depression-era public work relief program for unemployed men 18-25 years old. They provided unskilled (and apparently shirtless) manual labor to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural areas from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the program was designed to provide relief for unemployed youth who had a hard time finding jobs during the Great Depression, while implementing a general natural resource conservation program on public lands in every state and U.S. territory. It became the most popular New Deal program among the general public, providing jobs for a total of 3 million young men from families on relief. Participants planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America, constructed more than 800 parks nationwide that would become the start of most state parks, developed forest fire fighting methods, a network of thousands of miles of public roadways, and constructed buildings on the nation’s public lands.
Building strong bodies was a major program objective, and honest work, calisthenics, marching drill, good food, and medical care were features of the CCC health program. At the time of entry, 70% of the participants were malnourished. Enrollees worked 40 hours a week and were paid $30 a month, with the requirement that $25 of that be sent home to family.
Click on YOUNG SHIRTLESS WONDERS at the top of this post for a link to a nostalgic video of the boys at work.
Now back to the tan lines.
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