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below fifty degrees.
    Citrus and “row vegetables” were planted and then harvested. In the winter the Valley was a grand garden of grapefruit, navel oranges, lemons, limes, carrots, beets, broccoli, and cabbage.
    Ranching and oil were small contributors to the Valley’s economy, unlike the rest of Texas. There were no wide-open grazing spaces; cattle were raised on feedlots. Some oil was found in the western part of the Valley, but the gushers were far away.
    The small Valley farmers were hardly affected by the Depression. The country had an appetite for all they could produce, and the numerous harvests meant work for all.
    On the other side of the Rio Grande is Mexico, and the Mexican influence was evident throughout the Valley. Spanish-style white stucco buildings with red tile roofs were part of the landscape. Tacos, tamales, and enchiladas were eaten alongside hamburgers and hot dogs. Twenty percent of the population was Mexican; they lived together in their Catholic enclaves and mixed easily with the majority Protestant Anglos.
    Everyday social life revolved around farm, school, and church. Annual celebrations at the county fairgrounds were for displaying prize beets or carrots or pigs. Floats with agricultural themes would follow the high-school band as it marched down the paved main streets. The “Style Show” consisted of ladies modeling fashions made from local produce—carrot and beet “diamonds” shimmering against an eggplant-skin-and-date-palm dress. One lucky girl would have her life transformed as she proudly accepted the title “Citrus Queen.”
    The Valley was a small part of Texas with small farms and small towns. A youngster’s grade-school class would consist of eight students. A large high-school graduating class might number forty-five. It was a place where everyone knew their neighbors’ dogs.
     
    The Blocks struggled at first. The newly built farmhouse caught fire and burned to the ground. Ed had to take a job as a farm laborer and rent a small house while they got back on their feet. Belle had an idea to make some money. She suggested they buy a cow every two months with Ed’s earnings. Soon, the Blocks were in the dairy business.
    And soon they had a family. Ed Jr. arrived in 1920, followed by Maurine two years later, and Harlon in 1924. Later came three more boys: Larry, Corky, and Melford.
    As a middle child in a large family, with a brother four years older and a sister two years older, Harlon didn’t have to be a trailblazer. He could follow along in his older siblings’ footsteps.
    The chores started small and gradually for young Harlon. At first he would open the gates as his older brother, Ed Jr., brought the cows in to be milked. Then, as he grew, Harlon, his parents, his brother Ed Jr., and his sister, Maurine, milked fifteen cows apiece every morning starting at three A.M. Maurine would cool the raw, unpasteurized milk. She and Belle would wash the milk bottles and fill them. Then Ed Sr. would be off on his route selling his milk for five cents a quart. “That is how we survived the Depression,” was the way Maurine remembered it toward the end of the century.
    Harlon was a good helper. He always completed his chores without complaint. He took orders well, fit in as part of the family.
     
    Belle was determined to do right by her family, and she tried to be happy on the farm. But it was difficult for her. She missed the city, but loved her husband and children. So she made the best of it. Fine-featured and dark-haired, she was bred for the city. The Valley’s hot, damp climate had her red-eyed and runny-nosed from asthma and hay fever all the time, and the work at the milking stool hurt her back. Maurine recalled how her mother began to suffer bouts of depression: Toward evening she’d walk outside the farmhouse, stare off into space for half an hour, have a conversation with herself, and then come back.
    Perhaps it was Belle’s longing for another life that made her