The following is part of a series recapping Manteca history.The 1930s could be characterized as Manteca’s “quiet decade” if it weren’t for the first major flood of the 20th century, labor strife, fires, and diseased sugar beets temporarily shuttering Spreckels Sugar.The Depression and the Dust Bowl also combined to plant the seeds that would change the course of growth in Manteca and the rest of the Central Valley as tens of thousands of Midwest farmers came to California.Things were looking bleak as the decade started. Spreckels’ Manteca plant had been closed since 1922 due to disease that devastated sugar beet crops. The shuttered plant meant the loss of hundreds of jobs.Immigrants from the Dust Bowl were arriving in the Central Valley by the thousands to provide stiff competition for low-skill agricultural jobs.