These witnesses of Black Sunday and much of the other suffering of the Dust-Bowl years are now old men and women, and Burns, as he has in other documentaries, makes good use of these ordinary folk. He is a sort of Studs Terkel of documentarians.
VA Hospital - nursing program. I currently work for a VA Hospital (Veterans Administration - government hospital - best care anywhere!!). They have an interesting program to become an RN. They will pay FULL SALARY of a current employee, and they will pay for the program cost. All you need to do is commit to be a VA nurse.
Yes, the best state in the union for RN compensation is California. The annual average on-staff nurse pay in California is $94,120. Keep in mind that California has a higher-than-average cost of living, which reduces the purchasing power of those earnings to about $74,500.