My mother’s family were Okies although they all hate that name. “We’re Not Okies, we’re from Kansas!” (Yeah–25 miles from the border). My grandfather was a sharecropper, they didn’t have much, but they liked what they had. Then the Dust Bowl hit southern Kansas.
My grandfather took the trunk lid off of his 1932 Plymouth and built a doghouse sticking out the back. He piled his wife and five daughters into the car. With their belongings–what little they could could take with them–strapped to the top of the car and a trailer filled with household goods, with the bedding on top, they set off West, looking for work along the way.
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