"Dust storm approaching Spearman, Texas, April 14, 1935." Larger.
The promise of a better life brought many emigrants to California during the dust bowl era—-and not everyone who made the trip found a welcome. Poor job prospects and general prejudice often generated harsh feeling.
In 1943, Robert Easton published The Happy Man, a series of stories set on a huge northern California cattle spread during the thirties—-a time when ranch hands needed to be as familiar with diesel rigs and bulldozers as they were with horses. When some of the hands begin to talk about Okies, a cowpoke named Dynamite allows as we're all basically alike.
"Rear view of an Okie's car, passing through Amarillo, Texas, heading west, 1941." Larger.
". . . Take a sack of beans out of the field—any kind, pink, white, no matter—and pour 'em in a kettle and see how the foul stuff always comes on top—the straws and little stones. Same way with people. Pour your state into mine and it's the foul stuff shows up most, but the good beans is underneath there just the same, only a feller don't see 'em right away. Shucks sakes, we all got poor white trash—Utah, California, New York City—all of us. "T ain't nothing to git flusterated over. . . . These folks here, they's good beans, not trash. Maybe they had a place back home but the dust got it, or maybe they got brothers and sisters'n enough back there to fare for the old folks and they has to git out and rustle for theirselves. . . . Sure. . . .Hey you, Will Ragan, what kind of janitor's work are ye up to this day?"
Easton's book, The Happy Man, enjoyed an enthusiastic critical reception. Easton later wrote about conservation topics, including the 1972 volume Black Tide, the story of the Santa Barbaraoil spill.
below to hear radio segment.
