Okies & Arkies
Route 66 isn't really about Ford Mustangs and Harley-Davidsons on road trips. It's not about roadside diners and motels either. Route 66 was once the great highway from starvation to a decent life in the sun. In the 1930s, huge swathes of the US Midwest topsoil collapsed creating giant dustbowls. Millions of rural "Okies" and "Arkies" fled Oklahoma and Arkansas for a better life in California. They also came from Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri and elsewhere. The reality of life in California was, however, harder than these migrants expected with huge and unhealthy camps springing up coupled with brutal work regimes. But most stayed and eventually prospered. Native Californians resented the newcomers. Novelist John Steinbeck gave them a platform.
"I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land." The Grapes of Wrath
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Route 66 isn't really about Ford Mustangs and Harley-Davidsons on road trips. It's not about roadside diners and motels either. Route 66 was once the great highway from starvation to a decent life in the sun. In the 1930s, huge swathes of the US Midwest topsoil collapsed creating giant dustbowls. Millions of rural "Okies" and "Arkies" fled Oklahoma and Arkansas for a better life in California. They also came from Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri and elsewhere. The reality of life in California was, however, harder than these migrants expected with huge and unhealthy camps springing up coupled with brutal work regimes. But most stayed and eventually prospered. Native Californians resented the newcomers. Novelist John Steinbeck gave them a platform.
The journey
1. Route 66: The Mother Road
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Copyright Sump Publishing 2016
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