A unique opportunity for some cash was announced in 1938 that Dallas County, Iowa, would pay a bounty on starlings and crows until July 1, a nickel per foot, or ten cents per bird. Starlings were considered pests, causing damage and spreading disease. The Wilsons had seen a flock of about 2000 of the dark speckled birds, like a big swarm of bees, their raucous screeching like rusty hinges.
Seventeen-year-old Dale had already bagged 36 starlings by June 3. He and his brothers pooled their cash and bought a bicycle from the Freestones for $10, so he bicycled to Adel, sixteen miles away, with bird feet as proof. He brought home $3.60.
The Clabe and Leora Wilson family had a huge garden and canned everything they could. Neighbor O.S. Neal would hire a younger brother, Danny or Junior, to help him deliver milk. Mr. Neal paid his helper a little cash, plus milk to take home.
Four days later, Dale headed for Adel with evidence from 48 starlings and 3 crows. His mother Leora was so relieved when he returned home, this time with $5.10.
Even Junior, age 12, earned money that summer, at 50 cents a day, helping tear down the old Dexter hotel. The other workers called him “Swee’Pea,” from Popeye cartoons, because he’d wear one of his brothers’ sailor hats to work.
Halfway through June, verification from another 55 starlings netted $5.50. Three days later Dale brought home $4.70 cash. Finally Dale made his last trek to Adel June 21 for another $6.50.
$25.40 in all, for ridding the area of 254 bird pests. And those five 32-mile trips on a second-hand one-speed bike got Dale in shape for sports.
“Mom, what size shoes do you wear?” Dale parked the big Sears, Roebuck Catalog on the kitchen table.
“Now Dale, you’re not going to spend your hard earned money on shoes for me.”
“Yes, I am.”
Dale had noticed the holes in the soles in her shoes, that she’d cut cardboard to fit in them. Leora said that his generosity nearly made her cry.
Sturdy women’s shoes cost about $3.00, or thirty starlings. And there was still money enough for the senior expenses of a determined seventeen-year-old, even during the Great Depression.
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From Leora’s Dexter Stories: The Scarcity Years of the Great Depression. Also part of The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland in a story called “Teenagers During the Great Depression,” and has been produced for Our American Stories.
