The photo was taken just outside the doorway of a canvas tent which the mother and seven children lived in all year long! Houses were in very poor condition during the Depression.
In “Marigold” the narrator describes her home as a “tumble down shanty”. Also the narrator describes Miss Lottie’s house too… “Miss Lottie’s house was the most ramshackle of all our ramshackle homes. The sun and rain had long since faded its rickety frame siding from white to a sullen gray. The boards themselves seemed to remain upright not from being nailed together but rather from leaning together, like a house that a child might have constructed from cards.” …show more content…
In the photo of the mother and her children their clothes are frayed and full of holes. Their clothes are thin, threadbare almost. Likewise in the “Marigolds”. The narrator mentions that the kids she played with only wore one piece of clothing, “ each of us clad in only one garment….” The boys wore just pants, patchy pants that's was;while the girls wore faded dresses that were either too long or too short. And most likely no shoes as the narrator does mention her brother not wearing