Below, I am including background information and links to related material that may enhance your enjoyment of Margaret's adventures.
Hopalong Cassidy, AKA "Hoppy" Link to a trailer for one of Hoppy's early films. Since this is pretty exciting stuff, you heart patients out there should go ahead and call the ambulance before you click.
Civilian Conservation Corps Created by President Franklin Roosevelt very shortly after he took office in 1933, the CCC employed young, single men only, ages 18 to 25. Out of each man's $30 monthly paycheck, $25 was sent to his parents, so he never got his hands on it. The young men were frequently taken out of hopeless city conditions, and found themselves in a forest, rebuilding the nation's demolished ecology. Our natural resources had been utterly depleted by rapacious mining and lumber cutting. Hillsides were bald, and erosion rampant. Part of the CCC's job was to plant trees, build and repair roads and phone lines, shore-up stream beds, and build dams and outdoor recreational facilities. Until the CCC was created, America had never invested in preserving its natural resources, but rather had treated them as merely ripe for the pickin'. The concept of State and National Parks was new at this time, and the few that existed had neither access nor facilities to bring in visitors. But think about this: Next time you worry about how to fix the ecology and the economy, ask yourself, what would FDR do? The current President knows what FDR did. So, why isn't a new CCC being proposed as a possible solution again?
Cowgirls? COWGIRLS? Link will take you to a swell site about cowgirls in rodeo in Margaret Givens' era. Cowgirls competed in rodeo regularly beginning in the nineteen twenties, and their courage and skill in the arena were as real as their injuries. But the thirties was a time when anything to do with the Wild West was wildly popular. I mean, if you think Hoppy was weird, consider the fact that yodeling cowboys were considered excellent role models for young boys. "What's your boy want to be when he grows up, George?" "Why, Fred, he wants to become a singing cowboy." "Well, George, that's great! You'll be set for life."
Singing Cowboys? This link will take you to, well, there are just no words for this Roy Rogers video. It will definitely make you want to buy a horse and a large hat. But this hardly scratches the surface of the dreadful, society-wide Old West psychosis that, had it gone on much longer unchecked, might have turned America into a bunch of city-hating, nature-loving, horse-feeding and coyote-cuddling tree-huggers. Sing along with Gene Autry on "Back in the Saddle Again." Thrill to film trailers from some of his greatest movies. Hold back a tear while you listen to his unforgettable rendition of "Mexicali Rose." While we are undeniably safer now--what with National Security and all--than we would be sleeping under the stars, I sometimes succumb to the Old West psychosis. On those occasions, I am likely to take my bedroll out in the back yard and sleep under the safety of the neon glow. I don't build a campfire for fear of getting arrested for arson. I have no horse to feed, and if the garbage collection truck happens to come by during the night I risk being tossed into the city dump. But it does help me to appreciate the advantages that city life offers: safety, security, and freedom from doubt. Cowboy life ain't what it used to be.
American Cowpersons is a rather thrilling PowerPoint presentation which is included as an attachment for your home viewing pleasure. While it is not directly related to the present literary endeavor, it does offer some insight into Margaret's dreams and aspirations, as well as the strange psychological grip that All Things Western held on the American imagination during the Great Depression. This PowerPoint presentation is copyrighted and may not be used publicly without written permission from its author...me.