Written by Chester Melton as it appeared in the Arvin Tiller/Lamont Report supplement October 20, 1999.

   After leaving Mina, Arkansas in 1936, we came out to Las Cruses, New Mexico then on to Indio, California.  We worked various jobs making from 15 to 30 cents an hour.

   On Labor Day of 1941, we moved to the Pool & Campbell Camp just east of Weedpatch Market.  Bertha went down to the Government Camp and put in for one of the cottages, we never lived in the Tin Cabins.  In February of 1942 we moved into cottages #23.  Me and Jack McGee went over to DiGiorgio and worked.  They had a field of cotton and we picked cotton.  My badge at DiGiorgio Farms was #643 and I worked there from 1941 to 1946.  I worked long hours and usually six to seven days a week.  Bertha worked for Stoller Bros. and she wanted me to come over there and work.  I went there and worked for about fourteen years.  We lived at the camp for twenty-two years until February of 1964.  The highest wages I ever earned was 95 cents an hour before I had my heart attack.

   Bertha and I had three boys, Cecil who was very mischievous, then Willard who was a bookworm and our baby boy Bill who was the apple of our eye.  When the swimming pool was built our Willard was one of the first kids to jump in.

   This spring (1999) Bertha passed away but Chester is still living at the home they moved to in 1964.

Personal reminiscences
The Arvin Tiller/Lamont Reporter
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