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November 1936. Eighty-year-old woman living in squatters' camp on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California. "If you lose your pluck you lose the most there is in you -- all you've got to live with." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.
"If you lose your pluck you lose the most there is in you -- all you've got to live with."
Simple wisdom like this just leaves me shaking my head in awe, oh what we could learn today.
Very optimistic outlook considering what she must have seen in her lifetime: Civil War, Reconstruction, WWI, and the Depression, just to name a few things. She's a strong woman.
That look reminds me of my own octagenarian grandmother. The frown, the piercing gaze. Gramma would've been about 9 when this picture was taken. She's a sweetheart, mind. But with plenty of pluck.
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