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SEBRING, Nov 08, 2009 (Highlands Today - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Our recession is tough, but imagine an America where the jobless rate was 25 percent instead of 10 percent, where the blue-plate special was 25 cents and many people still couldn't afford it, where there were no unemployment checks or food stamps, where farmers couldn't afford to feed their cattle.

That's what happened 80 years ago after the Great Depression started. One of President Roosevelt's economic stimulus plans was the Civilian Conservation Corps, a small army young men who were employed for a few dollars a week, plus room and board.

As former ranger and museum director Darrel Smith told the crowd at the CCC Festival Saturday, teenagers and young men were sent to Sebring from all over the nation. They shoveled dirt and erected park pavilions, constructed new buildings and bridges, and created parks like Highlands Hammock.

The CCC boys were here from 1934 to 1941, until World War II started. They also planted exotic species of plants.

"Eighteen became invasive," Smith said, with the benefit of hindsight.

But they also learned how to behave in a camp setting -- useful after many became soldiers -- and they got all the food they could eat. They could even sleep on mattresses.

"We got innoc-co-lations," he told the crowd under a shade tent. As the former CCC museum director, he memorized bits and pieces of the stories of CCC boys, and reenacted the experience.

He was told by another CCC boy about the vaccinations, "When you run out of arms, they put 'em someplace else."

The festival also included antique cars and tractors dating before the 1910s, a python hunter, a magician and escape artist, and a farmer's market.

Smith will reenact his character again on Tuesday at a Sun 'N Lake church. More info: 386-6094.

Highlands Today reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863-386-5828

To see more of Highlands Today or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.highlandstoday.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Highlands Today, Sebring,
Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
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Gary Pinnell

Copyright (C) 2009, Highlands Today, Sebring, Fla.

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