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February 1939. "Shack of war veteran with view along Nueces Bay. Corpus Christi, Texas." Medium format acetate negative by Russell Lee. View full size.
Hi gang! This is my first comment, though I've been trolling Shorpy for years.
Okay ... so I'm thinking these are work-shacks, not actual homes. Shrimpers maybe?
See the brand new shack being delivered on the flatbed. The Gulf storms are so frequent and fierce that I doubt any of these would survive for long, so they were made cheaply and maintained with any old flotsom that washed up.
That said, these folks were certainly not well-to-do and their actual homes were no doubt hardly glamorous, but they worked the waters out of these buildings -- I don't think they lived here.
[The photographer's caption information for other photos in this series states that the veteran and his wife lived here. One of thousands of such pictures made for the Farm Security Administration during the Depression. - Dave]
Are these folks harvesting oysters? Must have been a miserable existence living out in the open on a beach.
The look on that child's face of sheer accomplishment is Why we try and capture moments. I hope.
Nueces Bay is a shallow bay that is still to this day a great spot for catching Speckled Trout, Redfish, and Flounder.
In present day Nueces Bay with it's close proximity to Corpus Christi, there are much nicer accommodations for Anglers. :-)
Not only the 7up posters to break the wind, but the door (and maybe some of the walls) appears to be recycled wood flooring. The tarpaper roof with no clear ventilation looks awfully warm, though. At least they have the breeze off the Gulf there.
Is that a pile of oyster shells alongside the house?
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