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CCC workers celebrate contributions 75 years later
AP ^ | 2008.08.18 | Susan Haigh

Posted on 08/18/2008 9:06:24 PM PDT by B-Chan

This year marks the 75th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Emergency Conservation Act, which created the CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps] and changed the lives of up to 4 million young men while reinvigorating a struggling nation.

Events are being held across the country to pay tribute to the CCC's work from 1933 to 1942.

[ ... ]

Most the CCC boys, as they're still called, were 18 to 25 years old when they enlisted. To be eligible for the program, they had to be identified by the U.S. Labor Department as being on the "relief rolls," unemployed, physically fit and single. Most earned $30 a month, with the government sending $25 back to their families.

They worked in every one of the 48 states at the time, as well as the territories of Alaska and Hawaii. There were also CCC workers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They developed national and state parks, planted about 3 billion trees, improved more than 3,500 beaches, built more than 46,000 bridges and countless picnic pavilions and park buildings, and surveyed millions of acres of land across the U.S.

Sharpe said many young people today are unaware of the lasting effect of FDR's New Deal program. Not only has the CCC been credited with creating the infrastructure for the nation's modern outdoor recreation system, it was the precursor to today's land management and conservation efforts. It's also seen as the granddaddy of other public service organizations, such as the volunteer AmeriCorps program.

(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: ccc; greatdepression; newdeal; publicworks
"Joe Iadarolla, now 85, remembers signing up at age 16 when he was living with his family in Waterbury, Conn.

"At the time, during the Depression, it was tough and my father was working for a company in Waterbury and he was only working a couple days a week," he said. "So, we needed food on the table. There were seven of us, besides mother and father. Nine people ate a lot of food."

1 posted on 08/18/2008 9:06:24 PM PDT by B-Chan
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To: B-Chan

The good news is that after Obama, the 2nd Depression make us part of CCC - the Next Generation.


2 posted on 08/18/2008 9:10:09 PM PDT by wac3rd (Carter80/Obama08)
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To: B-Chan
FDR sure wanted to add a P to CCC!
3 posted on 08/18/2008 9:11:52 PM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran (Remember the Alamo, Goliad and WACO, It is Time for a new San Jacinto!)
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To: B-Chan

Let’s do it again!! It’s not like those trails couldn’t use some upkeep. We pay the forest service big bucks. Why not reform Welfare a little more. Hell, if Germany can force single women on welfare into prostitution we can send ‘em to Alaska to the bush. (Pun intended :-)) I’m sure there’s a bunch of able bodied unemployed folks who could use some fresh air!


4 posted on 08/18/2008 9:21:54 PM PDT by CBF (It's the law stupid!)
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My whole life, I have listened to my mother describe someone being “As happy as a sissy in a CCC Camp.”


5 posted on 08/18/2008 9:27:37 PM PDT by radiohead (Please donate to the flooded libraries in Iowa.)
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To: CBF

a year or two of that would have done me a world of good right after high school.


6 posted on 08/18/2008 9:28:14 PM PDT by kms61
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To: kms61

At least you’ve learned.


7 posted on 08/18/2008 9:29:27 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: B-Chan

All that sounds good, but it kept wages artificially high while prices of everything else were falling, which means businesses couldn’t pay competitively and still make a profit.


8 posted on 08/18/2008 9:30:56 PM PDT by Free Vulcan (No prisoners. No mercy. Fight back or STFU!!!)
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To: B-Chan

Commies. That is all they “contributed” was the destruction of the Constitution. They should be ashamed, not proud.


9 posted on 08/18/2008 9:32:02 PM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
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To: B-Chan

Virtually NOTHING that FDR did resulted in lasting value for the USA. If I had my way I would remove FDR’s worthless carcass from its place of honor and leave it for the carrion fowl.


10 posted on 08/18/2008 9:32:31 PM PDT by ikka
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To: kms61

how about compulsory military service


11 posted on 08/18/2008 9:32:42 PM PDT by Selmore (Son Matthew is at Ft. Sill,)
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To: Temple Owl

ping


12 posted on 08/18/2008 9:32:47 PM PDT by Tribune7 (How is inflicting pain and death on an innocent, helpless human being for profit, moral?)
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To: Selmore

that would work too. I’m not saying it’s good national policy, but It would have benefited me personally to get my head screwed on straight.


13 posted on 08/18/2008 9:47:18 PM PDT by kms61
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To: wac3rd
My father was dirt poor on a farm in the northern woods of Michigan.

He and his older brother joined the CCC and from then on FDR had purchased two life-long Democrats.

Every election until his death my dad would mention the CCC and then pull the lever for the Democrat ticket (in Michigan you used to be able to vote straight party with one lever pull).

14 posted on 08/18/2008 10:02:49 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: B-Chan
The CCC is still around.

Except now it is called 'welfare' and since making people work was mean, they don't have to do anything anymore to get our, I mean their, money.


15 posted on 08/18/2008 10:27:20 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (A kid at McDonalds has more real-world work experience than Barack Hussein.)
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To: B-Chan

I was talking to my grandpa about the Depression (grandpa was born in 1930) and my great grandpa despised FDR. The way he’s genuflected, you’d think he was the only American at the time that did.


16 posted on 08/18/2008 10:56:13 PM PDT by GOP_Raider (Sarah Palin can be my running mate anytime.)
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To: OldMissileer

My grandad moved from WVA to FL to pick oranges...then came home to a family farm that was sold by his brother and he received none of the proceeds...

Those were tough times, but we got through them...I don’t think the modern American would survive as well as the people 70-80 years ago.


17 posted on 08/18/2008 11:30:07 PM PDT by wac3rd (Carter80/Obama08)
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To: CBF
My father served with CCC. He thought it was the only New Deal program worth a damn. Pay for honest work plus training for a trade.

When WWII came to pass there were thousands of men who had some basic military training they learned in the CCC.

He once said that there is no way, no how CCC could work in this day and time. I would agree.

18 posted on 08/19/2008 12:47:44 AM PDT by oyez (Justa' another high minded lowlife.)
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To: oyez
That's the sad truth of the matter. Lazy bastards.

My thanks to your father and many other men like him. The CCC is what built all the trails in the National Park I love to hike in and I've marveled at their ingenuity on more than one occasion.

19 posted on 08/19/2008 4:09:57 AM PDT by CBF (It's the law stupid!)
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