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February 1939. Sebastian, Texas. "Migrant camp of workers who hope to get employment in the winter vegetable harvest. Daughter of white migrants reaching for stick of wood." Medium format negative by Russell Lee. View full size.
There's one pan upside down inside the large one. A makeshift Dutch oven.
Judging from the various wood barks and grains, I'd judge they are burning a mixture of scavenged mesquite, live oak, pecan, and old busted-up cedar fenceposts.
About 45 yrs. ago, a friend who could no longer cook, gave me several of his bucket handle pots similar to the one pictured which had belonged to his long-gone mother. Some were very heavy gauge aluminum and some were enamel. Though I had never used pots with bucket handles (I do not know what they are correctly called), I found them extremely convenient and very easy to cook with, especially for sauces, pasta, soups, stews, pot roast, just anything. These pots also had the side handles so the cook could choose which handles he wanted to use. To this day, I am still using them and they are fantastic. I call them Mrs. Marangelo's magic pots because she was the original owner and everything cooked in them turns out scrumptious. I do not know why they no longer seem to make this style of cooking pot as it is so much simpler to use, carry and manipulate, especially for large quantity cooking. Sometimes it seems like the best inventions get discontinued for no reason. These pots have to be at least 65 or 75 yrs. old and are still in great condition.
I would hate to be a migrant toting that cast iron stove around.
I can see that somewhere near the wood stove would be a good place to keep the firewood or dry it out but isn't this a little too close? Looks to me like the wood would catch fire and burn the whole thing down. I have never used a wood cook stove. Maybe it is different than one used for heating only.
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