The Season

I was born on February 8, 1951 in a small migrant camp town in Southeast Florida. This mostly hot sandy little community was called Indiantown. My mother was a nineteen years old along, who with her father David and other siblings, lived at this camp during the seasonal months of 1950. They worked picking vegetables out in the enormous fields owned by local farmers for what little money they could make. This money was to be taken back home to care for the rest of the family. Times were hard and the family needed money to make ends meet. My grandmother, Annie Mae, was at home, a two-hour drive north in central Florida. She was caring for all the younger children. David and Annie Mae came to Florida in 1950; their children would always tease them by saying . . . . "We left Carolina in 1949 and got to Florida in 1950." Of course it was late December when they left, and January 1st by the time they arrived.