All these proclamations, all over town, on the telephone poles. I have some of them—big proclamations telling the people where to go, announcing the fact. And then when the day of removal came they all had to be at a certain place. Part of the people in San Francisco had to be at Van Ness Avenue in one of the great big automobile salesrooms, you know. Many of those were empty at the time and they took them over. These people came, with all their luggage and their best clothes and their children dressed as though they were going to an important event. New clothes. That was characteristic. But always off in a little group by themselves were the teenage boys. They were the ones that really hurt me the most, the teenage boys who didn’t know what they were. The older people have more of a way of being very dignified in such a situation and not asking questions. But these Americanized boys, they were loud and they were rowdy and they were frightened. (Dorothea Lange)
Erik M. Bachman 