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| Farmers outside closed bank in Frederick, Oklahoma 1933. WPA photo by Dorothea Lange, Library of Congress. |
LeRoy Baker is an upholsterer by trade. He grew up during the Depression on the
Great Plains, in Frederick, Oklahoma, where the dust blew and the crops withered.
Through the WPA and CCC, his father found work in South Texas and then in
Paris, Texas, but he still remembers Frederick as home.
Oral history taken November, 2004
Frederick, Oklahoma is my hometown. My daddy was an agricultural worker there during
the 1930s, before we moved to South Texas for the WPA. We lived in a migrant shack close
to the fields, and I remember the weather the most - the floods when the rains came, and
the constant threat of tornadoes. Daddy took the wheels off an old car, put trace chains
around the body, then piled earth on top of the northwest side - that became our storm
cellar. He was afraid of tornadoes because as a six year old boy, he'd been carried away by
a twister for a few miles.
Another memory is when all us kids played revival, which was the main form of
entertainment for the grown-ups then. We pretended the running boards around the cars
were pews, and my friend Billy would yell "Hominy, hominy, hominy" while the rest of us
began to speak in tongues. We got whipped for that, because our parents thought that was
sacrilegious!
I also remember the concrete road between Frederick and Lawton, which we called the
"rocking chair highway" because the joists were so close together, making all of us sway
back and forth in the car. I wonder if the road is still like that?
Great Plains, in Frederick, Oklahoma, where the dust blew and the crops withered.
Through the WPA and CCC, his father found work in South Texas and then in
Paris, Texas, but he still remembers Frederick as home.
Oral history taken November, 2004
Frederick, Oklahoma is my hometown. My daddy was an agricultural worker there during
the 1930s, before we moved to South Texas for the WPA. We lived in a migrant shack close
to the fields, and I remember the weather the most - the floods when the rains came, and
the constant threat of tornadoes. Daddy took the wheels off an old car, put trace chains
around the body, then piled earth on top of the northwest side - that became our storm
cellar. He was afraid of tornadoes because as a six year old boy, he'd been carried away by
a twister for a few miles.
Another memory is when all us kids played revival, which was the main form of
entertainment for the grown-ups then. We pretended the running boards around the cars
were pews, and my friend Billy would yell "Hominy, hominy, hominy" while the rest of us
began to speak in tongues. We got whipped for that, because our parents thought that was
sacrilegious!
I also remember the concrete road between Frederick and Lawton, which we called the
"rocking chair highway" because the joists were so close together, making all of us sway
back and forth in the car. I wonder if the road is still like that?
| Growing Up in Frederick |
| Frederick's former Carnegie Library |
Read about LeRoy's memories of Paris, TX here!