Bud, Not Buddy Day #6

Another map.  Flint, Michigan to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Here's a map of the way Bud would have traveled, including a dot on all the towns he'll have to travel through - Owosso, Ovid, St. Johns, Ionia, Lowell, and Grand Rapids.  A little shorter than going to Chicago, but still pretty long.


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And, I hate to scare you, but on Bud's travels he meets this guy:

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!  A Vampire!

Bud, Not Buddy Day #5

There are only a couple quick items for Day #5.  First, Bud and Bugs are offered "fine china" for their meal.  Fine china is super-fancy plates and dishes used in super-fancy meals.  Here's a picture of real fine china:

Now here's what Bud and Bugs were actually given.  Sardines are little fish that come in cans like you see first.  After the fish are gone, the cans were re-used as bowls, like the second picture.  Would you call this "fine china"?  Why would the people of Hooverville call them "fine china"?

 

So what's a mouth organ anyway?  One person (actually from yesterday's reading) is called mouth organ man.  Well, here it is:

Finally, what are "Commies"?  The police officers say the men wanting to board the train sound like Commies.  The simplest way to describe it is this:  Commies is short for Communists.  Communism is a form of government very different from the United States government, and many of the United States enemies have been Communist countries.  In a situation like what we read in the book, calling someone a Commie was an insult, like saying someone was anti-American.  It would be like saying, "What?  Are you saying you hate the United States of America?"

Bud, Not Buddy Day #4

Flint, Michigan to Chicago, Illinois?  270 miles?  54 hours of walking?  Let's take a look at the map...


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Bugs and Bud learn they need to go to Hooverville - at first they call it Hooperville by accident - in order to ride the rails west.  When they arrive, they learn that there are Hoovervilles all around the country and they are named after President Herbert Hoover.  The people who live there blame him for the situation they are in.  Here are some pictures of what a Hooverville looked like.  Notice that the first one is located right next to the train tracks.

 

Finally, here are two famous photographs from the Great Depression.  Do you think they show the emotions of people at the time, especially people like those Bud and Bugs meet?

 

Bud, Not Buddy Day #3

When Bud goes "on the lam," he mentions another name that fits with John Dillinger and J. Edgar Hoover.  He says "I was crouching down, sneaking along the street like Pretty Boy Floyd."  Pretty Boy Floyd was another bank robber and gangster in the 1930s.  The FBI caught and killed him in 1934.  Here's a picture:

In chapter 7 Bud luckily gets into the line at the mission for a free meal when a friendly family pretends he is their son.  We learn a lot of what the Great Depression was like from this scene.  The line is down the road and around two corners, and all the people are waiting for a free meal because they don't have jobs or money to buy food for their families.  Here are some pictures that show scenes described in the chapter.

  

Bud, Not Buddy Day #2

So Bud meets a vampire bat hanging from the roof of the shed.  Did it look something like this?

At the end of chapter 4, Bud says that he is "on the lam" just like Public Enemy Number One.  He also says that "if J. Edgar Hoover saw me now I'd be in some real serious hot water!"  Hoover was the first director of the FBI in the United States.  Public Enemy Number One is what the FBI calls their most wanted criminal, the one they want to catch the most.  Here's a picture of Mr. Hoover.

By the way, remember Bud saying he was shooting out apologies like John Dillinger shoots out bullets?  Well, John Dillinger was Public Enemy Number One in 1934 until Hoover and the FBI caught and killed him.

Bud, Not Buddy Day #1

In chapters 1-2 we learn that the story takes place during the Great Depression.  Here's some information about that time in our country's history.

1. It lasted from 1929 until about 1940.
2. Unemployment in the United States was 25%, which means one out of every four people lost their jobs, and which also means there was very little money to go around.
3. Herbert Hoover was the United States president at the beginning.
4. Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in 1932.

In chapter 2 Bud says he started shooting out apologies like John Dillinger shoots out bullets.  Who was he? 

Dillinger was a gangster and bank robber.  And yes, he shot out bullets.  Lots of them.  In less than one year, 1933-1934. Dillinger and his gang robbed numerous banks, and Dillinger himself killed 10 people, including a sheriff.  So if Bud was shooting out apologies like Dillinger shoots out bullets, you know what Bud was doing.  Dillinger was shot and killed by the FBI on July 22, 1934 in Chicago.

Don't forget to answer your questions on your blog.

UPDATE:  I thought you might like to see just how far Toddy got that pencil up Bud's nose.  Remember?  It went in eraser end first, all the way up to the R in Ticonderoga.  Yowch!

Before We Start Working Online...

Here is a video to watch before we begin posting a lot of information on the Internet.  This short movie is about protecting your reputation online.  What does that mean?  To protect is to keep safe.  Your reputation is what people think about you.  Here is the video.

Protecting your Reputation Online

Yes, embarrassing things happen to all of us.  But what you post to the Internet is within your control.  What will be the effect of your posts tomorrow, next week, next year, or forever?  Always assume two things about information you put on the Internet:

1. The information will be there forever.
2. The information will be visible to everyone.