depression-era america

my younger brother bought my dad a copy of obama's first book, dreams of my father for the holidays, and i've been enjoying it's pre-gifted presence around my house. i especially liked the images evoked by this passage:

...and the childhoods they liked to recall for my benefit portrayed small-town, Depression-era America in all its innocent glory: Fourth of July parades and the picture shows on the side of a barn; fireflies in a jar and the taste of vine-ripe tomatoes, sweet as apples; dust storms and hailstorms and classrooms filled with farm boys who got sewn into their woolen underwear at the beginning of winter and stank like pigs as the months wore on.

this image reminds of the farm that graces the cover of the criterion collection's days of heaven, one of my all-time favorite movies.