What’s in Mrs. Hale’s Receipts for the Million 1857?

4006. Rules to Govern Persons who Attempt to Rescue the Drowning – 1. In removing a body from the water, whether into a boat or drawing it along along by your own efforts always keep the face upward.

Another Blog Hop

Thanks to Jessica Knauss for setting up this Second Historical Fiction Blog Hop. I’m always up to sharing a bit of history through my writing. For this hop, I had to find an excerpt of ten sentences from a novel, “no more and no less.” I looked at several possibilities and chose the one below. And of course, an appropriate comment from Mrs. Hale. Be sure to check out Jessica’s website to find the other writers who are participating.

A Little Background: Initiating New Enrollees at a Civilian Conservation Camp 1935

My award-winning historical novel, Tree Soldier, is set in a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the North Cascades in Washington. The CCC’s were part of the New Deal and the most beloved of FDR’s programs helping the nation get back on its feet during the Great Depression. At one point, Washington State had 9,500 young men enrolled. 6,500 came from out of state, including New York, Illinois and New Jersey.

In this scene, Park Hardesty, from Pennsylvania, and his new crop of squad mates from New Jersey are being hazed by a squad made up of local boys. In real life, all boys new to a side camp in my area were thrown into the river. Those who couldn’t swim got a rope.

“Ready?” McGill nodded to two of his friends and before Hardesty could react, Lorenzo was picked up and tossed far out into the river. He went down, then came up sputtering, grabbing desperately for the taunt rope.

“That was a dirty trick.” Hardesty got right in McGill’s face and slammed him on his shoulders. “What the hell did you do it for? What was the point?”

McGill shrugged him off. “Watch your paws.”

Hardesty watched the boy flounder in the water and hoped Larsen and the two others that held him would bring him in quickly. He hesitated, wondering if it would do any good at all to go in, when he could help haul him in here on shore.