One Family’s True Account of Migrant Life During the Great Depression Focus of New Book

Louisville, KY, March 21, 2008 --(PR.com)-- In Glorified Chicken Coops, author Tanya I. Cole provides a riveting portrait of an American family that takes us through the great American diaspora, which began with the Great Depression, when nearly 400,000 people from Oklahoma and the Great Plains were displaced. In this uniquely personal story, we see a family’s life defined by a constant daily struggle to survive and the unexpected humor that can be found even in the direst of situations.

Glorified Chicken Coops is a true-life account of the Cole family, whose American story begins in the backwoods of Oklahoma. Though the book provides a background of the Coles from pre-civil war times, the focus of this journey takes place during the 1930s and 40s around the personality of Iva Cole, a woman whose husband is gone much of the time in a desperate search for work, leaving Iva to care for a houseful of children. It is a story of a life dictated by circumstance, with dreams that have been left by the wayside. For the Cole family children, there was the harsh reality of life with a mother whose bone-weary existence leaves her unable to do much more than take out her anger, frustrations, and resentment on them, which, we learn, takes a deep emotional toll.

By 1943, the Cole family moves to California to seek a better life. Tanya Cole writes:
“She knew a lot of good people came out of Oklahoma, so what if they didn’t have good educations or a lot of money. Most Oklahomans were not lazy; they were hard-working people and were just going through some bad times. The depression was still going on and everyone was just trying to make a living. They were Okies, but they were proud Okies and they had nothing to be ashamed of.”

The Coles arrived in the small farming community of Wasco. Because there was no housing for the migrants, the farmers and the government built a communal labor camp, which consisted of a series of long, thin plywood, flat-top shacks, resembling chicken coops, next to the tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad. Life in the camp was challenging, especially for the Cole family children who found themselves picking potatoes for survival and always having to be ready for a fight with other migrant children. For the Okies and their fellow camp people, prejudice emanated from the surrounding community who only saw them as people “from the wrong side of the tracks.”

Ms. Cole’s account of these indomitable hunter-gatherers, who barely survived from paycheck to paycheck, is written in a straightforward, honest manner that captures the attention and the heart because it has the common touch.

ISBN(s): 1432719197 Format(s): 5.5 x 8.5 Paperback SRP: US $14.95/CAN $14.95
Genre: Historical – United States – 20th Century

Tanya Irene Cole began documenting her family’s history after she began caring for her mother in 2003, when story after story about “the good old days” came pouring out. Cole, who was raised in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, immediately recognized their importance and began recording them for posterity. The youngest of eight children, Cole conducted extensive interviews with remaining family members to create this book, making it a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the Great Depression and the recovery years from a family’s perspective.

For more information or to contact the author or illustrator, visit www.outskirtspress.com/glorifiedchickencoops

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