My Step-Father was one of those boxcar kids. Left home at 14 because his parents were giving up his younger siblings for lack of food. Rode the rails from SoCal to NyCity. He found a job in a Jewish Bakery carring bags of flour to the third floor.
The bakery owners though in finding that he was a Catholic literally took him by the ear and enrolled him in a Catholic HS. He didn’t want school, he wanted to work and help the family back home. They told him that the only way to survive in the world was to be educated. They let him study, then work. After he graduated they encouraged him to get some college education.
Eventually, he joined the Army in 1939 so that h could have a regular meal and a place to sleep. Because of the college he was invited to enroll in OCS in 1942. The Army completed his education and he retired in 1969. He always
thanked the Jewish couple that saved a poor kid from California, He would sometimes hint at the kids he saw on the streets who ended up dead or abused.
My parents grew up during the Depression. My dad used to talk about riding the rails from Minnesota to California. He came back to Minnesota, though. He was one of 14 kids. After 8th grade the kids were expected to get a job to help support the family. Only one of the fourteen — my Uncle Joe who was the eldest son — graduated from high school. It was a different life back then; something today’s young people will never understand.