Rooted

I was born in Kellogg, Idaho to parents who had migrated to the northwest from the deep south for the opportunity presented by this booming and growing region. My dad, being uneducated, though hardworking, found job opportunities severely limited in southern Georgia in the late 1940's. The labor intensive jobs that he qualified for paid "nigger" wages. I do not use that word in disrespect. I use it to illustrate that blacks and poor white folks in the deep south were paid the same scant wages. My dad worked in the mines of the "Silver Valley" for 35 years and though never wealthy, he eked out a decent life for my mom and me. I lived in a very sterile environment. We were pretty much all white, though our ancestors immigrated from many regions of Europe. There were Scandinavians, Poles, Italians, Germans, and Irish. Except for a few people in town, we were all pretty much in the same economic class. There was little poverty and even less wealth. Unemployment, for those that chose to work, was nonexistent. I was lucky enough to escape Kellogg before all that came to a sudden end. Most of the mines closed due to economic and environmental reasons. The lumber industry, another of the primary employers of that region, also all but disappeared for similar reasons. The heartier of my classmates stayed and toughed it out, but the majority of us had to leave the area to advance our lives Many remained in the Pacific Northwest, moving to more prosperous places like Coeur d'Alene, Spokane Washington, or the Oregon coast.

I have traveled the world and as I approach retirement, I have relocated to the coast of South Carolina, very near my parents roots. I notice that things are not much different here than my dad found it in the late 1940's. The difference now is that in the working class, blacks and poor whites have been joined by another rapidly growing group, illegal Mexicans. Wages are still very low. There is a lot of poverty here. The Myrtle Beach area is very affluent, with the influx of northern wealth, but very much like much of America, everyone does not share that wealth.