A handsome blond, Leon Patterson looked like a picture of the California dream; more than a few of us yearned to be him. He was, however, the product of the California reality: poverty, toil, and grit. His family had struggled west from Arkansas searching for opportunities in the shadow of the Great Depression. The Pattersons were part of the larger, second wave of “Okies, Arkies, and Texies” who migrated during the 1940s. The Great Central Valley, at 15,000,000 acres about the size of Egypt, held the promise of at least seasonal work, even for unskilled laborers—especially at its larger southern end, called the San Joaquin Valley by locals. By World War II, the Valley had become one of the state’s economic engines, sustained by agribusiness, oil, and abundant cheap labor.
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Research Article|
July 01 2013
Leon Patterson: An Athlete Dying Young: Vigorous vulnerability in the Central Valley
Gerald W. Haslam
Gerald W. Haslam
Gerald W. Haslam, professor emeritus at Sonoma State University, is the author of twenty books and the editor of eight, most recently In Thought an Action: The Enigmatic Life of S.I. Hayakawa. All his works are off-beat explorations of California; his current project is a biography of athlete Leon Patterson.
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Boom (2013) 3 (2): 9–16.
Citation
Gerald W. Haslam; Leon Patterson: An Athlete Dying Young: Vigorous vulnerability in the Central Valley. Boom 1 July 2013; 3 (2): 9–16. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/boom.2013.3.2.9
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