Jestus Ward, my grandfather. Date unknown
My grandfather was one of the original dust bowl migrants in the 1930s. I didn’t know that until recently, when my mother showed me this photograph and we started talking about him. Evidently, my father went to California for the first time when he was fourteen (which would have been 1939). Jess had been there for a while, looking for work.
I never really knew him. My father didn’t get along with him (I’ll leave it at that).
Hm – your grandfather was the same age as my father, whose family were also Dust Bowl migrants – Okies and Arkies who wound up in Southern California around WWII. My dad went on to the Foreign Service (through a side door) and wound up pretty cosmopolitan, but I love listening to members of the family who still have that Ozark twang.
Anyway, that’s quite a picture; you can see a lot about the man.