Life In Sylacauga Essay

458 Words2 Pages
During the Second World War masses of people from all over were flooding to towns like Sylacauga, Alabama to work in factories or on ships. Sylacauga was only meant to harbor five to ten thousand inhabitants, but the war brought a flood of twenty to forty thousand people through its gates. The small town became extremely overcrowded as people doubled up on housing and began living in tents on its outskirts. Because of the overcrowding, Sylacauga became overwhelmed and the resulting life quality of the average person living in Sylacauga began to diminish. The street and shops became flooded and people had to wait in huge lines to do simple things, such as send a letter at the post office. When it came to laundry, people were lucky to get their…show more content…
People began to work toward the public good and hunt for rooms and boarding houses for newcomers to live in. They also took step to combat the isolation and lack of social interaction by organizing social get togethers and events. For example, they began to hold get togethers in the church where police acted as guards to make sure everything ran smoothly and safely. The Women’s Organization began to plan many things such as the cleaning up of the town pool, tennis matches, and the development of a very important Red Cross Organization. As more and more events were organized, people began to play and cooperate together. They developed events of the week and began to hold recreational ball games instead of shooting matches. In addition, they held square dances, participated in plays and music performances, and storytelling. People even developed nutrition programs that replaced recipe swapping. Through the implementation of social events and public goods, the town of Sylacauga was transformed from an overcrowded town of isolation and full of strangers, to a town of active socialization, where co-workers became familiar
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