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News-Sun photo by CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY Norman Welch served nine months in the Civilian Conservation Corps, from September of 1939 until June of 1940. He worked in the lower Keys, helping eradicate mosquitoes and re-decking a fishing pier underneath the Seven Mile Bridge. Here he stands in front of a photographic display in the CCC Museum at Highlands Hammock State Park.

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published: Sunday, November 08, 2009

Building the country out of a depression

By CHRISTOPHER TUFFLEY

christopher.tuffley@newssun.com

LAKE PLACID -- In 1939, when he was 15 years old, Norman Welch's parents lied about his age so he could join the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The corps required its inductees to be between 18 and 25 years old.

But the Great Depression still affected the economy, and Welch's family did not have the money to keep him in school. He was in the ninth grade at the time and living in Hollywood, Fla. were he was born.

Joining the CCC had not been his parents' idea. A friend planned on joining, and talked Welch into joining with him.

His parents agreed because he would be working, not hanging out on the street; safe, housed and fed. He would also earn $30 a month, $25 of which was sent directly to the family.

The boys went down to Miami, Welch said, passed a simple physical and signed on for the obligatory six months. Weighing only 112 pounds, Welch was quickly nick-named Pee-Wee.

He was sent down to the Keys, to a camp on Summerland Key.

Almost everything was provided for the young men, who lived in cabins sleeping five men each. Everyone ate in a central mess hall. Welch remembers the food was good, occasionally augmented by fish, lobsters or conch the men caught themselves right out their back doors.

They didn't wear uniforms but were issued denims that were so stiff the men tied lengths of rope to a belt loop and dropped the pants over seawalls to soak in the ocean for three or four days. Without softening the jeans like that, Welch said, wearing them in the heat caused a terrible rash.

As with all CCC camps, the overall administrator was an army officer, but a civilian supervised the men, who typically worked from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. five days a week.

Saturdays they were provided with transportation down to Key West for time off. But, because they only received a $5 spending allowance each month, the men often didn't have money for extras or entertainment.

Instead, Welch remembers sitting on the sea wall of the La Concha Hotel with his friends watching young women walk by.

Years later, when Welch met his second wife Virginia -- his first wife passed away -- he discovered that she had grown up in Key West, and while she had left by the time he arrived, she remembers walking down to the same hotel with her friends, checking out the CCC boys from the safety of across the street.

Key West was much smaller then, Welch said, and U.S. 1 was a narrow, winding, two-lane road.

He said that the men primarily worked at mosquito control.

"You've heard the expression, 'You couldn't see out of the window for all the mosquitoes'?" he asked. "Well, we couldn't see out the windows, the mosquitoes were so bad.

"We needed net covering for our heads, wore gloves and tucked our pant legs into our socks.

"Our job was to dig ditches from stagnant ponds out to the ocean so the salt water would come in and kill the mosquitoes.

"We had picks and shovels and would break up the coral rock, then move it out of the way.

"The rock was so hard the pick would strike sparks and bounce back at you."

When he was asked if he could drive a truck shortly after he started to work, Welch stretched the truth a bit. He had driven Model A Fords, and didn't think there would be much of a difference.

In fact, he quickly mastered the pick-up, grateful to be out of the hot sun.

Later he drove a larger dump truck.

When the supervisor was busy else where, the young men would amuse themselves by driving their trucks up the steep inclines by the bridge abutments. What Welch called blue mud was hauled out of the ocean and used for the fill, held in place with retaining walls.

"It was slippery stuff," Welch said, "like wet soap. We'd drive the trucks up and let them slide down backwards. We'd have someone watching out, and as soon as the supervisor headed back, the look-out would yell 'Fire in the hole,' and we'd get right back to work."

In addition to eradicating mosquitoes, Welch said the men at his camp continued the clean up after the hurricane of 1935, built stone retaining walls -- many of which are still standing -- and re-decked the pier under the Seven-Mile Bridge, adding a safety rail to protect the fishermen.

Welch served for nine months. By then it was 1940 and World War II had broken out in Europe.

While America was not yet involved, President Franklin Roosevelt was beginning to prepare the country for war, shifting funding from peace time, economy stimulating programs to those producing munitions and expanding the armed forces.

Welch returned home and worked briefly for a flooring company before enlisting in the army.

"There are't many of us left," he said, but a hand full of local residents who were part of the CCC still get together to remember old times.

Welch also volunteers regularly at the CCC Museum in Highlands Hammock State Park. Fittingly, the museum building was built by CCC workers.