Grandma Catherine-Oleary Falvey picking Rubarb

         I remember my grandmother picking what looked like weeds out of the prairy at 79th and Dobson and puting them into her Marshall Fields shopping bag on the southside of Chicago. I was embarassed and asked her, "Grandma what are you doing, there's people looking at us?" She with a strong stoicism in her voice said, "I fed my ten children during the depression after your grandfather died on these weeds." She then went home and promptly boiled them in a big pot. I asked her again what it was? Rubarb she replied. She worked at Marshall Fields for forty years in the cafeteria before retiring. Mrs. Catherine Falvey came from Ireland when she was fourteen. She said there was no room for her on the farm. She died at ninety seven leaving fifty-seven grandchildren and fifty-six great grandchildren.
                                                                     True Story.


          Power farming displaces tenants. Texas panhandle, 1938.    Photographer: Dorothea Lange.