Depression Era

Pictures like this one (courtesy of Shorpy.com) always make me wish I could sit down with the subjects of the photo and ask what was going on right then. What were they thinking? What were they about to do?
It makes me want to be able to have them talk to several people I know today who take so much for granted. As hard as some things get, at least most people today in this country know from where their next meal is coming and when. This photo family probably didn't.
Upon taking in this whole scene with the mother's tattered sweater (held together with a safety pin), her skirt made from a flour sack, the barefoot children probably still wearing last week's dirt, the thing that stood out the most to me was the brother reaching up and grabbing the sister's toe and grinning at her. It gives the impression that they didn't have much, but they loved each other. Sometimes that's what it's all about.