The month of May was a time of change in New York City.

The cold weather was finally over.

The days of sunshine began to outnumber the days of clouds and dread.

Anything seemed possible, especially in 1928, when America's economy was booming.

Unemployment was low and even a middle-class family had the chance

for success. That's exactly how Edward Budd felt that spring. He and his wife, Delia, lived in an

apartment house on West 15th Street in New York's Chelsea neighborhood with their children, Edward Jr., who was

18, and everyone called Eddie, Albert, George, little Beatrice, and Grace,

who was 12, and enrolled in a nearby public school. The buds were more or less an ordinary New York City family.

Edward had a job as a doorman and made a decent living. They weren't rich, but they

weren't poor. They attended church. They shopped for groceries in the neighborhood stores. They were

city people. Well, all of them but Eddie. Summer was coming and soon more than anything, he wanted

to get out of the big city. He had a fascination with wide open places, real grass, farms, and fields.

He was tired of the noise and the dirtiness in New York and on May 21st decided to do something

about it.

He placed an advertisement in the situations wanted column of the New York newspaper, The World. It read,

young man, 18 years old, wishes position in the country for the summer. And Eddie got a reply.

The old man came to the house on Wednesday, May 23rd. He was thin with sagging brown eyes, skin that looked like parchment, white hair, and a stiff-looking white mustache. He was wearing a conservative suit that, while a little seedy, still made him appear respectable. He introduced himself to Mrs. Bud as Frank Howard and explained that he had a vegetable truck garden near Farmingdale on Long Island.

And he asked her, is it your son who wants to work in the country this summer?

Delia called Eddie and the three of them sat down in the living room of the apartment.

Mr. Howard explained further that he'd also had a half dozen milk

cows on his Long Island farm and had six children, although only one of his children still lived

...