There were big financial gains to be made in a growing market overseas. A war was looming in Europe. Profiteers and investors in the US were staged and ready for deployment. On the home front there was a different type of battle brewing. It was a class war.
The ivory towers of Citadel City cast a shadow over the populous wandering the streets below. That darkness stretched to the farming communities to the south.
Betty McDougal lived with her mother Mage and her father Randall on a their farm. It was the only life she’d known. She was an innocent country girl and was happy for a very long time. At one point their farm was thriving. Her father employed people of all colors to help out. Everyone earned an honest wage, for an honest days work. Betty grew up learning to share. She believed that everyone was equal and should be treated fairly in the world. But her belief would change.
A banker named Carson used private information about the McDougal’s business and financial situation to ruin their livelihood. For a hefty payoff he helped a friend, a produce tycoon, monopolize the regional market. They poached the McDougal’s customers, contacts, and connections. They repeated this scam on neighboring farms as well. They undercut the small farm’s prices. It took the naive farmers awhile discover what happened. Then they banded together in a collective to buy seed in bulk to compete with the massive competitor’s low cost, but suppliers ignored them as a show of loyalty to their newer, bigger partner.
A whisper campaign circulated about contamination of the local soil. The rumor implied that Negroes had poisoned food going to the whites in the city. The story was ridiculous but effective. Within one season the McDougal farm shrunk. Randall couldn’t hire back his crew so they moved on. The farms output reduced to subsistence levels. It kept the family alive but not much more. He sought out other potential markets but couldn’t gain access. Randall was running out of money and defaulted on the mortgage.
Dread consumed Betty’s father and mother. Her mother’s mental health deteriorated as the crisis grew worse. One by one neighboring farms folded up. The Citadel bank foreclosed and the families were evicted. Eventually the McDougal’s number was up. They lost all the equity in their property and the sheriff forced them from their home.
It was 14 February 1934, Betty’s 17th birthday.
Randall wanted to stay in the area but there were no jobs. Through a connection in their church the McDougal’s relocated to a shelter in Citadel. The nuns furnished him with a job as a night janitor at an affiliated hospital. While he worked, Farmer McDougal dreamed of earning piles of cash and getting back the family farm. Unfortunately with his new shallow income, it would take a long, long time.
Betty didn't like the city or living in the basement shelter. It was over crowded and the high windows were barred and it felt like a prison. It seemed like a dumping ground for drunks and weirdos. Dirty men missing teeth smiled at her queerly. It made her uncomfortable. The place was dark, smelly and scary. It was hard to make friends at the shelter since people were always coming and going. It seemed that the ones she wanted to know didn’t stay very long, and the ones she wanted to avoid kept coming back. Betty worried that the shelter made people crazy over time. Her mother was getting worse. She only spoke in anger anymore. Her father was not himself either. He was losing hope.
The nuns who ran the shelter enrolled Betty in an all-girl high school to finish senior year. She didn’t mind city school. It was a distraction from the problems that surrounded her. She avoided returning to the shelter and spent her after-school time in the library. She enjoyed reading, but was distracted by her parent’s misery. To her the problem was simple; buy back the farm so they could go home. Once it was paid off no one could take it away from them ever again. They could live off the land worry free, forever. She wished for a way to save the day, but she was only a kid. She wasn’t sure how a cute young teenage girl with long legs could make a lot of money in Citadel.
She started working in the hospital laundry after school. She didn’t really have any expenses so it was easy to save. But at the rate she was earning it would take a long time to accumulate a substantial sum. It was very hard work for very little pay. It seemed unfair. Also, there was absolutely nothing fun about fighting and folding hot, heavy, wet sheets in a room full of steam. There had to be an easier way to make a buck. At least it got her out of the shelter.