Acadian Snapshot
A tidy home and a coiffed youngster could not conceal tough times for Maine's potato farmers during the Great Depression.
By Joshua F. Moore
Two-year-old Réal Gendreau might not have had a clue who the man from Washington was when photographer Jack Delano showed up at his family's farmhouse near Madawaska back in October 1940, but Gendreau's mother, Julie, certainly did. Mrs. Gendreau, shown here posing with Réal at the Singer sewing machine she set up in her kitchen, has made sure the tot's hair is carefully combed, the salt and pepper jars, clock, and teapot are neatly arranged upon the stove behind her, and the wedding portrait of Julie and her husband, Baptiste, hangs straight on the living room wall.
