OFF SCREEN: How old are you Mr. Rhodes if you don't mind me asking?

RHODES: Seventy-nine.

OFF SCREEN: Seventy-nine. Do you remember how you first heard about the CCC?

RHODES: Well, it's kind of a real—it wasn't a coincidence. My dad was in the CC camp.

OFF SCREEN: Was he?

RHODES: Yeah. He went in, I think, in '35. I didn't get a chance to go in until '41.

But he had a lot of association with the CC guys. And me and my brother that's younger than me, we sold sweet potatoes to the CC camp from the time we was about twelve years old.

OFF SCREEN: No kidding? So you almost grew up at the CCC camp?

RHODES: I almost did. I was born only a mile and a quarter from the CC camp.

OFF SCREEN: No kidding? And that was over there at Mexia?

RHODES: Yes. It's half-way between Mexia and Groesbeck in Limestone County.

And I finished school about half a mile from the camp.

OFF SCREEN: How old were you when you enrolled?

RHODES: Eighteen.

OFF SCREEN: Eighteen. Had you graduated from high school by then?

RHODES: Yes. I just graduated from high school.

OFF SCREEN: Went right in to it?

RHODES: Right.

OFF SCREEN: I'll be darned. What do you remember about life in the CCC, in the camp?

RHODES: Life in the camp, I would say it was beautiful because we had—when you was out there working on a farm, you didn't know where your next meal was coming from. But when you was in the CC camp, you knew where you were going to get your three hots a day.