The Grapes of Wrath...Classic Okie book.

[peggydavis]

My deceased ex FIL used to talk about the depression when he was a teen in Missouri. Any wild animal they could find was killed for food, because they were hungry. Now we have so many deer they are becoming pests.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by peggydavis

The ending was horrible, wasn't it. The movie didn't show the ending in the book.

In reality, most of the Okies did better in California than the book depicts.

If anything, the book tells us we should always help our fellow man, even if they look like white trash or if they are of another race or if they have accents and dress different from our own, because they are probably good people who are victims of circumstances they can't control.

My grandparents left Oklahoma during the depression to pick grapes in California during the 1930's. They made good money, but didn't like the way they were treated as outsiders, so they took their money and moved back to Oklahoma, in Cushing, and used the money to build them a modest, but nice, new house.

[rthomassin]

Grandpa was out there for 50 years, from 1890 to 1940, when he migrated to CA, like many of the other folks out there in the Panhandle.

This is a letter that he wrote to Mom in 1934. It sort of gives a feeling for the hard times and the tough, stoical character of the hardy people living through those times.

"May 26, 1934. Wheeless, Okla.
Dear daughter & family, We got your card some time ago saying that you were coming in June. June is almost here. Tell us when to meet you at Boise City. It is still dry here. I haven't planted anything yet. Can't hope to raise anything now except feed. It rained about four inches day before yesterday twenty miles north of here.
We are both well & we hope you are all well. We have over two hundred chicks now & some young turkeys. It is very discouraging to think that we will miss another crop this year after having two failures, but maybe we will get by some way. We have plenty to eat, for which we are thankful. A good many people here are talking of leaving if it don't rain by the first of June. You must excuse a short letter this time as I think I have got the blues just a little. Answer real soon. Love to all. Dad" (John Nelson Grover)

[peggydavis]

Boise City was a tough place to be in 1934. He must have been a tough person to stay there until 1940.