By: Leslie R
Texas, Grade: 5

Dear Diary,
Today Mother and I watched Father and Paul, my brother, get on the train to go find work. I was one of the lucky ones. One of the very few lucky ones. I lived in a house, we had enough food, and Father and Paul were about to get some more money. The Depression changed my life forever today. I was in the part of town where the 'real' houses were. Mother today told me to go fetch some water from the river, which was by the homeless people. I guessed Mother needed more money to keep the pipes running. I ran to the river and saw something horribly suprising. There awas a house made of old car tires and a blanket! But inside was worse. An old mank, dirty to the bone, was selling his son, a small blonde haired boy, to a rancher. I filled my basket with water and hurried out of the homeless place. I was frightened. I was frightnened of those poor people, but most of all, I was frightened that our family would might become like those people. I was scared.