William Pius Durbin, Jr. Central Catholic HS graduation photo. 1947 In 1723, more than five decades before the 4th of July meant anything special, Samuel Durbin and Ann Logsdon were married on that date in Baltimore, Maryland. He was my great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather—my G6—and may have been one of the two brothers from Wales who, according … Continue reading Dad’s family history
Author: michaeldurbin
I'm a software engineer for the banking industry. And I like to write.
Mom’s family history
Lorraine Barbara Kalish, high school graduation photo. 1951 Adam Malec was 20 years old in 1901. That’s the year he crossed the Atlantic in the zwischendeck, or steerage compartment, of a steamship. Adam had seven years earlier fled the family farm in Poland to get away from a mean stepmother, walking more than 600 miles … Continue reading Mom’s family history
My family before me
Lorraine Kalish hadn’t heard from Bill Durbin for nearly two years after their 1949 Easter Dance date and visit to the Chatterbox roadhouse, when one day the senior at East Side High was mortified to be called to the principal’s office. Had she done something wrong? It was only to retrieve a letter from my … Continue reading My family before me
Playing with fire
By the age of three I had mastered such standard life skills as how to stack things, how to operate a toilet, and how to start a fire. Indeed, I nearly burned our house down. You’d think that such a traumatic experience at that age would make some impression on my developing brain, such that … Continue reading Playing with fire
The Secret Lives of America’s Migrant Farmers
Published on Narratively on September 3, 2014... An innovative college program opens privileged young eyes to the million undocumented laborers who toil away in an invisible America. Story and photos by Michael Durbin... It’s early June at Camp Chestnut Ridge in Efland, North Carolina. Towering pines outside the dining hall are still dripping after a … Continue reading The Secret Lives of America’s Migrant Farmers
Considering the farmworker: What I’ve learned
I’m a Wall Street technology manager. Two years ago I set out, citizen journalist style, to learn and write about people whose lives are very different from mine: migrant farmworkers. These are the men, women and children who harvest most of the fresh produce you see at America’s grocery stores. I’ll share what I learned … Continue reading Considering the farmworker: What I’ve learned
The Nice Camp
From my 2014 blog The Considerate Omnivore... Last summer I accompanied some college students doing educational and health care outreach at migrant farmworker camps. They were generally dismal places, ill-maintained and no place I’d ever want to spend the night. Except for one. It was mid July. Hot. I’d been traveling all day with Julie … Continue reading The Nice Camp
The lives of child farmworkers in their own pictures and words
From my 2014 blog The Considerate Omnivore... Each year, a little-known contest by a little-known agency in Washington, DC lets children of migrant farmworkers portray their lives in essays and drawings. The annual contest by the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs invites these children to submit essays and artwork for judging by a panel, with … Continue reading The lives of child farmworkers in their own pictures and words
Father Tony
From my 2014 blog The Considerate Omnivore... He's collected a small mountain of donated toothbrushes and T-shirts but what he really needs are pants: About four thousand pair. Father Jesus Antonio Rojas, known by all as Father Tony, runs the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry in Dunn, North Carolina. From an airy facility about an hour south … Continue reading Father Tony
A Chavez for here and now
From my 2014 blog The Considerate Omnivore... For many migrant farmworkers, things haven’t changed much since the 1970s when the legendary activist Cesar Chavez co-founded, with Dolores Huerta, the union known today as the United Farm Workers. Today in North Carolina and surrounding states, the people working one of the most dangerous jobs in America … Continue reading A Chavez for here and now
Michael Durbin 