 Do you want to go to the donkey deli? Maybe it's not there anyway. It's a Spanish journey food. Yeah, donkey deli. Maybe it's interesting. Welcome to another wonderful performance of the willing suspension armchair theater in another great event for our celebration of Steinbeck's Graves of Wrath. This is one of 30 events that we've been doing to celebrate Steinbeck and the times of Steinbeck, the photography that went on during that time period and the history of that time period. These events are put together by a partnership called Santa Cruz Reads. Santa Cruz Reads is a collaboration of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, the Friends of the Santa Cruz Public Libraries and Santa Cruz Rights. And we believe that great works of literature inspire conversations, and that certainly has been true so far this month. We see that that is definitely true. I do want to point out, you probably already noticed, that one of our important partners, the community TV, is here tonight. So this performance is being filmed and you will get to see it on your local community TV station. We're very pleased about that and they have filmed several of our events and there's a few more yet to go. I'd like to introduce Wilma Marcus Chandler who's going to set the stage for tonight's performance and we'll kind of let everybody settle in a little bit and then when everybody's got a good spot, we'll begin. Wilma? It's a real pleasure to be here on behalf of the Willing Suspension Armchair Theatre. We are a readers theatre company dedicated to bringing literature to the public in live performances. We have a cadre of about 100 readers and about 20 directors and we do shows on many different topics throughout the year at libraries and bookstores and theaters and anywhere else that people would like to hear stories, fiction poetry, not drama fiction poetry, oral histories letters and things on many, many different topics. We're very honored to be part of the big read the Steinbeck read and I would like to introduce our readers who are going to be reading Steinbeck's odd chapters the alternate chapters, the counterpoint contrapuntal chapters of the actual story of the Grape Sabrat. These are the alternate chapters which really talk about America ecology and the spiritual quest of the book. We have Nick Biller-Dello Dave Kramer-Erner John Chandler, Debra Bryant Mauricio Simano Ruthie Elliott You can only hold six names Abondonnay Wales and Karen Schomburg. Thank you and enjoy the show. From a 1938 letter my whole work drive has been aimed at making people understand each other to his close friend Pascal Kovicci. I'm not writing a satisfying story I've done my damnedest to rip a reader's nerves to rags I've tried to make the reader participate in the actuality what he takes from it will be scaled entirely on his own depth or hollowness. There are five layers in the book and a reader will find as many as he can and he won't find more than he has in himself. And those five layers are one, a family struggle two, a people struggle the migrants struggle three, the story of a nation America four, a spiritual journey the quest for profound understanding of mankind's commitment to his fellow man and to the earth we inhabit and five, a study in ecology the environmental shifts and the awareness required to save the land and now from the grapes of wrath Chapter one to the red country and part of the grey country of Oklahoma the last rains came gently and they did not cut the scarred earth the plows crossed and re-crossed the rivulet marks the surface of the earth crusted a thin hard crust and as the sky became pale so the earth became pale pink in the red country and white in the grey country in the water cut gullies the earth dusted down in dry little streams gophers and antlions started maul avalanches and as the harp sun struck day after day the leaves of the young corn became less stiff and erect they bent in a curve and then as the central ribs grew weak each leaf tilted downward the air was thin and the sky more pale and every day the earth paled when june was half gone the big clouds moved up out of texas and the gulf high heavy clouds rain heads the men in the fields looked up at the clouds and sniffed and held wet fingers up to the sense to sense the wind and the horses were nervous while the clouds were up the rain heads dropped a little spattering and hurried on to some other country in the dust were dropped craters where the rain had fallen and clean splashes on the corn and that was all the wind grew stronger the air and sky darkened and threw them the sun shone redly and there was a raw sting in the air during the night the wind raced faster over the land dug cunningly among the rootlets of the corn and the corn fought the wind with weakened leaves the dawn came but no day in the gray sky a red sun appeared a dim red circle that gave a little light like dusk and as the day advanced the dusk slipped back toward darkness and the wind cried and whimpered over the fallen corn men and women huddled in their homes and tied handkerchiefs over their noses when they went out and wore goggles to protect their eyes when night came it was black night for the stars could not pierce the dust the wind passed and left the land quiet the people lying in their beds heard the wind stop they lay quietly and listened deep into the stillness in the morning the dust lay like fog and the sun was red as ripe new blood all day the dust sifted down from the sky and the next day it sifted down and even blanket covered the earth it settled on the corn piled up on the fence posts on the wires on the roofs blanketed the weeds and the trees the people came out of their houses and smelled the hot, stinging air and covered their noses from it the children came out of the houses but they did not run or shout as they would after a rain men stood by the fences and looked at the ruined corn the men were silent and they did not move often and the women came out of the houses to stand by their men to feel whether this time the men would break after a while the faces of the men lost their perplexity and became hard and angry and resistant then the women knew they were safe and that there was no break then they asked what'll we do and the men replied I don't know but it was all right the women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole and the men sat in the doorways of their houses their hands were busy with sticks and little rocks the men sat still thinking figuring chapter 3 the turtle the concrete highway was edge with a mat of tangled, broken dry grass and the grass heads were heavy with oat beards to catch on a dog's coat and fox tails to tangle it a horse's fetlocks and clover birds to fasten his sheep's wolf sleeping life waiting to be spread and dispersed every seed armed with an appliance of dispersal twisting darts and parachutes for the wind little spears and balls of tiny thorns and all waiting for animals or the hem of a woman's skirt all passive but armed with appliances of activity still but each possess of the unlaga of movement the sun lay on the grass and warmed it and in the shade under the grass the insects moved ants and ant lions to set traps for them and grasshoppers do jump into the air and flick their yellow wings for a second sow bugs like little armadillos plotting recklessly on many tender feet and over the grass at the roadside a land turtle crawled turning aside for nothing dragging his high dome shell over the grass his hard legs and yellow nail feet threshed slowly through the grass not really walking but boosting and dragging his shell along the barley beards slid off his shell and the clover birds fell on him and rolled to the ground his horny beak was partly opened and his fierce humorous eyes under brows like fingernails stared straight ahead he came over the grass leaving a beaten trail behind him and the hill which was the highway embankment reared up ahead of him for a moment he stopped his head held high he blinked and looked up and down at last he started to climb the embankment front clawed feet reached forward but did not touch the hind feet kicked his shell along and it scraped on the grass and on the gravel as the embankment grew steeper and steeper the more frantic were the efforts of the land turtle pushing hind legs strained and slipped boosting the shell along and the horny head protruded as far as the neck could stretch little by little the shell slid up the embankment until at last a parapet cut straight across its line of march the shoulder of the road a concrete wall 4 inches high as though they worked independently the hind legs pushed the shell against the wall the head up raised and peered over the wall to the broad smooth plane of cement now the hands on the top of the wall strained and lifted and the shell came slowly up and rested its front end on the wall for a moment the turtle rested a red ant ran into the shell into the soft skin inside the shell and suddenly head and legs snapped in and the arm and tail clamped in sideways the red ant was crushed between body and legs and one head of wild oats clamped into the shell by a front leg for a long moment the turtle lay still and then the neck crept out and the old humorous frowning eyes looked about and the legs and tail came out the back legs went to work straining like elephant legs and the shell tipped to an angle so that the front legs could not reach the level cement plane higher and higher the hind legs boosted itself until at last the center of balance was reached now the going was easy and all the legs worked and the shell boosted along waggling from side to side a sedan driven by a 40 year old woman approached she saw the turtle and swung to the right off the highway the wheels screamed and a cloud of dust boiled up two wheels lifted for a moment and then settled the car skidded back onto the road and went on but more slowly the turtle had jerked into its shell but now it hurried on for the highway was burning hot and now a light truck approached and as it came near the driver saw the turtle and swerved to hit it his front wheels struck the edge of the shell flipped the turtle like a tiddling wink spun it like a coin and rolled it off the highway the truck went back to its course along the right side lying on its back the turtle was tight in its shell for a long time but at last its legs waved in the air reaching for something to pull it over its front foot caught a piece of quartz and little by little the shell pulled over the wild old head fell out and three of the spearhead seeds stuck in the ground and as the turtle crawled down the embankment its shell dragged dirt over the seeds the turtle entered a dust road and jerked itself along drawing a wavy shallow trench in the dust with its shell the old humorous eyes looked ahead and the horny beak opened a little his yellow toenails slipped a fraction in the dust Chapter 5 the owners of the land came onto the land or more often a spokesman for the owners came they came in closed cars and they felt the dry earth with their fingers and sometimes they drove big earth augers into the ground for soil tests the tenants watched from their sun beaten door yards watched uneasily when the closed fields and at last the owner men drove into the door yards and sat in their cars to talk out of their windows the tenant men stood beside the cars for a while and then squatted on their hands and found sticks with which to mark the dust some of the owner men were kind because they hated what they had to do and some of them were angry because they hated to be cruel and some of them were cold because they had long ago found that one could not be an owner unless they were cold and all of them were caught in something larger than themselves some of them hated the mathematics that drove them and some were afraid and some worshipped the mathematics because it provided a refuge from thought and feeling if a bank or a finance company owned the land the owner men said the bank or the company needs once insists must have as though the bank or company were a monster with thought and feeling and which had ensnared them they were men and slaves while the banks were machines and masters some of the owner men were proud to be slaves to such cold and powerful masters you know the land is poor you've scrambled at it long enough god knows you know the lands getting poorer you know what cotton does to the land crops it sucks all the blood out of it well it's too late and the owner men explained the workings and thinkings of the monster that was stronger than they were a man can hold land if he can just eat and pay taxes he can do that until his crops fail and he has to borrow money from the bank but you see a bank or a company can't do that because those creatures don't breathe air don't eat side meat they eat profits they eat the interest on money if they don't get it they die the way you die without air without side meat it is a sad thing but it is so the squatting men look down again what do you want us to do we can't take less share of the crop we're half-starved men the kids are hungry all the time we got no clothes torn and ragged we're wearing the same with a shame to go to a meeting and at last the owner men came to the point the tenant system won't work anymore one man on a tractor can take the place of 12 or 14 families but you'll kill the land with cotton we know we've got to take the cotton quick before the land dies then we'll sell the land lots of families in the east would like to own a piece of land you'll have to get off the land and you'll go through the door yard it's not us it's the monster men made it but they can't control it but if we go where will we go how will we go we got no money maybe you can go on relief why don't you go on west to california there's work there and it never gets cold why you can reach up anywhere and pick an orange why don't you go there and the owner men started their cars and rolled away and asked we don't know we don't know the tractors came over the roads and into the fields great crawlers moving like insects having the incredible strength of insects they ignored hills and gulches water courses, fences, houses the man sitting in the iron seat did not look like a man gloved goggled rubber dust and asked he was part of the monster a robot in the seat he could not see the land as it was he could not smell the land as it was his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth at noon the drivers stopped near a tenant house and opened his lunch sandwiches wrapped in wax paper white bread pickled cheese, spam a piece of pie branded like an engine part curious children crowded close ragged children who ate their fried dough as they watched they watched humbly the unwrapping of the sandwiches they didn't speak to the driver they watched his hand as it carried food to his mouth after a while a tenant who could not leave the place came out and squatted in the shade of the tractor why you drove Davis's boy sure what are you doing this kind of work for against your own people three dollars a day I got damn sick of creeping for my dinner and not getting it now I got a wife and kids we got to eat three dollars a day and it comes in every day that's right before your three dollars a day 15 or 20 families can't eat at all I gotta think of my own kids it's not me I lose my job if I don't do it and look suppose you kill me they'll just hang you but long before you're home they'll get another guy on the tractor and he'll bump the house down you're not gonna be killing the right guy thought so who gave the orders I'll go after him he's the one to kill you know he got his orders from the bank bank gets orders from the east where does he stop who can we shoot I don't aim to starve you to death before I kill the man who's starving me I don't know maybe there's no one to shoot maybe it isn't men at all maybe the property's doing it anyway I told you my orders the tractor cut a straight line on and the ground vibrated with its thunder chapter 9 in the little houses the tenet people sifted their belongings and the belongings of their fathers and their grandfathers picked over their possessions for the journey west the men were ruthless because the past had been spoiled but the women knew how the past would cry to them in the coming days the men went into the barns and sheds, harness, carts cedars, little bundles of hose bring them out pile them up load them in the wagon, take them to the town sell them for what you can get sell the team and the wagon no more use for anything 15 cents isn't enough to get for a good plow that cedar cost $38 $2 isn't enough can't haul it all back well take it and a bitterness with it junk piled up in the yard well take it all junk and give me $5 you're not only buying junk you're buying junked lives buying bitterness and the tenet man came walking back hands in their pockets hats pulled down some bought a pint and drank it too fast to make the impact hard and stunning but they didn't laugh they didn't dance they didn't sing or pick guitars they walked back to the farms hands in their pockets and heads down shoes kicking the red dust up maybe we can start again in the new rich land in California where the fruit grows we'll start over but you can't start only a baby can start you and me why we're all that's been for the moment the thousands of pictures that's us this land this red land is us and the flood years and the dust years and the drought years are us the bitterness we sold to the junk man he got it all right but we have it still and when the owner man told us to go that's us and when the tractor hit the house that's us until we're dead to California or any place a major leading a parade of hurts and someday the armies of bitterness will all be going the same way and they'll all walk together and there will be a dead terror from it how can we live without our lives how will we know it's us without our past no leave it burn it how will it be not to know what lands outside the door suddenly they were nervous gotta get out quick now can't wait we can't wait and they piled up the goods in the yards and set fire to them they stood and watched them burning and then frantically they loaded up the cars and drove away drove in the dust the dust hung in the air for a long time after the loaded cars had passed Chapter 12 Highway 66 is the main migrant road 66 the long concrete path across the country waving gently up and down on the map from Mississippi to Bakersfield where the red lands and the grey lands twisting up into the mountains crossing the divide and down into the bright terrible desert and across the desert to the mountains again and into the rich California valleys 66 is the path of the people in flight they come into 66 from the tributary side roads from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads 66 is the mother road the road of flight Clarksville and Ozark and Van Buren and Fort Smith on 64 and the end of Arkansas and all the roads into Oklahoma City 66 down from Tulsa 270 up from McAllister 81 from Wichita Falls South from Enid North Edmund McLeod Purcell 66 out of Oklahoma City El Reno and Clinton going west on 66 Hydro, Elk City and Texola and there's an end to Oklahoma 66 across the Panhandle of Texas Shamrock and McLean Conway and Amarillo The Yellow Will Dorado and Vega and Boyce and there's an end to Texas to come Kerry and Santa Rosa and into the New Mexican Mountains to Albuquerque where the road comes down from Santa Fe then down the gorge Rio Grande to Los Lunas and west again on 66 to Gallup and there's the border of New Mexico and now the High Mountains Holbrook and Winslow and Flagstaff and the High Mountains of Arizona then the Great Plateau rolling like a ground swell Ash Fork and Kingman and Stone Mountains again where water must be hauled and sold then out of the broken sunrotted mountains of Arizona to the Colorado with green reeds on its banks and that's the end of Arizona There's California just over the river and a pretty town to start it up needles on the river but the river is a stranger in this place up from needles and over the burn range and there's the desert 66 goes on over the terrible desert where the distance shimmers and the black center mountains hang unbearably in the distance at last there's Barstow and more desert until the last of the mountains rise up again the good mountains and 66 winds through them then suddenly a pass and below the beautiful valley below orchards and vineyards and little houses and in the distance a city and oh my god it's over listen to the motor listen to the wheels listen with your ears listen with your hands on the steering wheel listen with the palm of your hand on the gear shift lever listen with your feet on the floorboards listen to the pounding old jalopy with all your senses for a change of tone a variation of rhythm may mean a week here that rattle that's tappets don't hurt a bit tappets can rattle till Jesus comes again without no harm but that footing as the car moves along that just kind of feel it maybe oil isn't getting someplace maybe a Baron's starting to go Jesus if it's a Baron what'll we do money's going fast and why's the son of a bitch heat up so hot today saying no climb let's look God almighty the fan belt's gone here make a belt out of this little piece of rope let's see how long there I'll splice the ends now take her slow take her straight to a town that rope belt won't last long and the tires two layers of fabric worn through only a four ply tire might get a hundred miles more out of her if we don't hit a rock and blow her what shall we take a hundred maybe miles or maybe spoil the tube which a hundred miles well that's something you gotta think about we got tube patches maybe when she goes she'll only spring a leak how about making a boot might get five hundred more miles let's go on till she blows we gotta get a tire but Jesus they want a lot for a old tire they look a fella over they know he got to go on they know he can't wait and the price goes up take it or leave it I ain't business for my health I'm here reselling tires I ain't giving them away I can't help what happens to you I gotta think what happens to me I've seen forty two cars of you fellas go by yesterday where you all come from where all of you going this is a free country fella can go where he wants that's what you think every here with the border patrol on the California line police from Los Angeles stopped you bastards turns you back says if you can't buy no real state we don't want you you got a driver's license let's see it tore it up says you can't come in without no driver's license it's a free country well try to get some freedom to do fella says you're just as free as you got Jack to pay for it in California they got high wages I got a hand bill here talks about it I've seen folks coming back somebody's kiddin' you you want that tire or don't ya got to take it but Jesus mister it cuts into our money we ain't got much left well I ain't no charity take her along got to I guess let's look her over open her up look at the casing you son of a bitch you said the casing was good she's damn near broke through the hell she is well by George how come I didn't see that you did see it you son of a bitch you want to charge us four bucks for a busted casing I'd like to take a socket you now keep your shirt on I didn't see it I tell ya here tell you what I'll do I'll give you this one for 350 you'll take a fly and jump at the moon we'll try to make it to the next town think we can make it on that tire got to I'll go on the rim before I give that son of a bitch a dime Danny in the back seat wants a cup of water after we got no water here listen at the rear end can't tell sound telegraphs through the frame there goes a gasket got to go on listen to her whistle find a nice place to camp and I'll jerk the head off but god almighty the food's getting low the money's getting low when we can't buy no more gas what then Danny in the back seat wants a cup of water little fella's thirsty listen to that gasket whistle that's there she went blowed tube and casing all the hell have to fix her save that casing to make boots cut them out and stick them inside a weak place 250,000 people over the road 50,000 old cars wounded streaming wrecks along the road abandoned well what happened to them what happened to the folks in that car did they walk where are they where does the courage come from terrible faith come from and here's the story you can hardly believe but it's true and it's funny and it's beautiful there was a family of 12 and they were forced off the land they had no car they built a trailer out of junk and loaded it with their possessions they pulled it to the side of 66 and waited and pretty soon a sedan picked them up five of them rode in the sedan and seven on the trailer and a dog on the trailer they got to California in two jumps the man who pulled them fed them and that's true but how can such courage be and such faith in their own species very few things would teach such faith the people in flight from the terror behind strange things happen to them some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever chapter 14 the western land nervous under the beginning change the western land nervous as horses before a thunderstorm the great owners sensing a change knowing nothing of the nature of a change the great owners striking at the immediate thing the widening government the growing labor unity striking at new taxes the plans not knowing these things are results not causes there's little difference between a tractor and a tank people are driven intimidated hurt by both we must think about this I lost my land a single tractor took my land I am alone and I am bewildered and in the night one family camps in a ditch and another family pulls in and the tents come out the two men squat on their hands and the women and children listen here's the node you who hate change and fear revolution keep these two squatting men apart make them hate fear suspect each other here's the unloga of the thing you fear this is the zygote for here I lost my land is changed as cell is split and from it splitting grows the thing you hate we lost our land the danger is here for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one if from this first we there grows a still more dangerous thing I have a little food plus I have none if from this problem the sum is we have a little food the thing is on its way the movement has direction only a little multiplication now and this land this tractor is ours the two men squatting in a ditch the little fire the side meat stewing in a single pot the silent stone eyed women behind the children listening with their souls towards their minds do not understand the night draws down the baby has a cold here take this blanket it's wool it was my mother's blanket take it for the baby this is the thing to bomb this is the beginning from I to we if you who own the things people must have could understand this you might preserve yourself if you could separate causes from results if you could know that pain, marks Jefferson, Lenin were results not causes you might survive but that you cannot know for the quality of owning freezes you forever into I and cuts you off forever from the we the western states are nervous under the beginning change need is the stimulus to concept concept to action a half million people moving over the country a million more restive ready to move 10 million more feeling the first nervousness and tractors turning the multiple furrows in the vacant land chapter 15 along 66 the hamburger stands Alan Susie's place Pearl's lunch Will's Eats Borden Bat Shacks two gasoline pumps in front door along bar stools and a foot rail near the door three slot machines showing through the glass the wealth of nickels three bars will bring and beside them the nickel phonograph with the records piled up like pies ready to swing out to the turntable and play dance music tippy tippy tin thanks for the memory Bing Crosby Benny Goodman down at one end the cooking plates pots of stew potatoes roast beef waiting to be sliced the cook is Joe Carl or Al May is the contact smiling irritated near to outbreak smiling while her eyes look on past unless for truck drivers they're the backbone of the joint can't fool truck drivers they know they bring custom they know the big cars on the highway languid, heat rattled ladies small nucleoluses about whom revolve a thousand accoutrements creams, ointments to grease themselves coloring matter and vials black, pink, red, white, green silver beside them little potbellied men in light suits and animal hats with worried eyes restless eyes restless formulas don't work out hungry for security and yet sensing its disappearance from the earth in their lapels the insignia of lodges and service clubs places where they can go and by a weight of numbers of little worried men reassure themselves that business is noble and not the curious ritualized thievery they know it is that businessmen are intelligent in spite of the records of their stupidity that they are kind and charitable in spite of the principles of sound business and these two going to California to sit in the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel and watch people they envy go by to look at mountains mountains mind you and great trees he with his worried eyes she thinking how the sun will dry her skin cruising along at 60 I want a cold drink well there is something up ahead want to stop do you think it is clean clean as you are going to find in this God forsaken country the great car squeals and pulls to a stop the fat worried man helps his wife out may looks at and pass them as they enter Al looks up from his griddle and down again may knows they will drink a 5 cent soda crab then it ain't cold enough the woman will use six paper napkins and drop them on the floor the man will choke and put the blame on may the woman will sniff as though she smelled rotting meat and they will go out again and tell forever afterward that the people of the west are sullen and may when she is alone with Al has a name for them she calls them she heals truck drivers that's the stuff a 1926 Nash sedan pulled weirdly off the highway the back seat was piled nearly to the ceiling with sacks the pots and pans and on the very top right near the ceiling two boys rode the car pulled up to the gas pumps a dark haired hatchet face man got slowly out and the two boys slid down from the load and hit the ground may walked around the counter and stood at the door the man asked can we get some water ma'am sure go ahead I'll keep my eye on the hose she watched while the man unscrewed the radiator cap and ran the hose in a woman in the car said see if you can't get it here the man turned off the hose and screwed on the cap again little boys took the hose from him and they upended it and drank thirstily the man took off his hat and stood with a curious humility in front of the screen you see your way to sell us a loaf of bread ma'am this ain't no grocery store we got bread to make sandwiches if we sell bread we gonna run out we're hungry why don't you buy a sandwich we got nice sandwiches, hamburgs we can't we gotta make a dime do all of us you can't get no loaf of bread for a dime 15 cent loafs we'll run out before the black drug comes we'll run out then god damn it this here a 15 cent loaf god damn it may give them the loaf no we want to buy 10 cents worth of it we gotta figure out for clothes to get to california you can have this for 10 cents I'll be robbing you ma'am go ahead Al says take it may sound funny to be so tight but we got a thousand miles to go in we don't know if we'll make it when he put his dime on a counter he had a penny with it he was about to put it back in his pouch when his eye fell on the boys frozen behind the candy counter is them penny candy ma'am oh them well no thems too for a penny well give me two then ma'am he placed the copper set on the counter the boys expelled their breath softly may held the big sticks out take them they reached timidly each took a stick and they held them down at their sides and did not look at them but they looked at each other and their mouth corners smiled rigidly with embarrassment thank you ma'am the man picked up the bread and went out the door and the little boys marched stiffly behind him the ripe sticks held tightly against their legs they leaped like chickmunks over the front seat and onto the top of the load and they burrowed back out of sight like chickmunks the man got in and started his car and with a roaring motor and a cloud of blue oily smoke the ancient Nash climbed up on the highway and went on its way to the west from inside the restaurant the truck drivers and May and Al stared after them when they saw Bill wheeled back them wasn't two for a cent candy what's that to you it was nickel apiece candy we gotta get going we're dropping time they reached in their pockets Bill put a coin on the counter and the other man looked at it and reached again and put down a coin they swung around and walked to the door so long hey wait a minute you got change you go to hell May watched them get into the great truck watched it lumber off in low gear and heard the shift up the winding gears to the cruising ratio Al he looked up from the hamburger he was patting thin and stacking between wax papers what you want look there she pointed at the coins beside the cups two half dollars Al walked near and looked and then he went back to his work truck drivers and after them shit heels chapter seventeen the cars of the migrant people crawled out the side roads onto the great cross country highway and then took the migrant way to the west in the daylight they scuttled like bugs to the westward and as the dark caught them they clustered like bugs to shelter and to water and because they were lonely and perplexed because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry and defeat and because they were all going to a new mysterious place they huddled together they talked together and shared their lives, their food and the things they hoped for in the new country thus it might be that one family camped by a spring and another camped for the spring and the company and a third because two families went near the place and found it good and when the sun went down perhaps twenty families and twenty cars were there in the evening sitting about the fires the twenty were one the families learned what rights must be observed, the right of privacy in the tent, the right to keep the past black hidden in the heart the right to talk and to listen the right to refuse help or accept it or help or decline it the right of a son to court or a daughter to be courted the right of the hungry to be fed the rights of the pregnant and the sick to transcend all other rights the families learned what rights are monstrous and must be destroyed the right to intrude upon privacy the right to be noisy while the camp slept the right of seduction or rape, adultery, theft murder the rights were crushed because the little worlds could not exist for even a night with such rights alive they grew up governments and leaders with elders and the world were built in the evening the people moving in from the highways made them with their tents and their hearts and their brains the camps became fixed each a short days journey from the last time to look for a place to stop and there's some tents ahead the car pulled off the road and stopped and because others were there first certain courtesies were necessary can we pull up and sleep well sure be proud to have you what state you from come all the way from arkansas these arkansas people down that fourth tent that's so and the great question how's the water well she don't taste so good but there's plenty well thank you and it was ready for a new world and a new night but along the highway the cars of the migrant people crawled out like bugs and the narrow concrete miles stretched ahead chapter 21 these god damn okies are dirty and ignorant they're degenerate sexual maniacs thieves they'll steal anything they got no sense of property rights and the latter was true for how can a man without property know the ache of ownership the local people whipped themselves into a mold of cruelty then they formed units squads and armed them armed them with clubs with gas with guns we own the country we can't let these okies get out of hand and the men who were armed did not own the land but they thought they did and the clerks who drilled at night and the little storekeepers possessed only a drawer full of debts but even a debt is something even a job is something the clerk thought I get $15 a week suppose a god damn okie would work for 12 and the little storekeeper thought how can I compete with a debtless man when there was work for a man 10 fought for it fought with a low wage if that fellow worked for 30 cents I'll work for 25 if he'll take 25 I'll do it for 20 no me I'm hungry I'll work for 15 I'll work for food and this was good for wages went down and prices stayed up then a new method a great owner bought a cannery and when the peaches and the pears were ripe he cut the price of the fruit until the cost of raising it and the cannery owner paid himself a low price for the fruit and kept the price of canned goods up and took his profit as time went on there were fewer farms and the farmers moved into town for a while and exhausted their credit exhausted their friends their relatives and they too went on the highways and the roads were crowded with men ravenous for work ravenous murderous for work the fields were fruitful and starving men moved on the roads chapter 23 a harmonica is easy to carry take it out of your hip pocket knock it against your palm to shake out the dirt and pocket fuzz and bits of tobacco now it's ready you can do anything with a harmonica thin, reedy, singletone or chords or melody with rhythm chords you can mold music with curved hands making it wail and cry like bagpipes making it full and round like an organ making it sharp and bitter as the reed pipes of the hills and you can play it and put it back in your pocket and as you play you learn new tricks new way to mold the tone with your hands to pinch the tone with your lips and no one teaches you and if you lose it or break it you can buy another one for a quarter a guitar is more precious must learn this thing fingers of the left hand must have callus caps thumb of the right hand a horn of callus player in the evening and there is a harmonica player in the next 10 makes it pretty nice together the fiddle is rare hard to learn no frets, no teacher let's listen to an old man try to pick it up shrill is the wind the fiddle quick and nervous and shrill these three in the evening harmonica, fiddle and guitar playing a reel and tapping out the tune and the big deep strings beating like a heart and people move close look at that texas boy long legs loose taps four times for every dance texas boy swing around like that look at him swing that Cherokee girl written her lips and her toes point out look at her pant, look at her heave think she's tired, think she's winded well, she ain't texas boy got his hair in his eyes mouth wide open and can't get air but he pats four times for every darn step and he keeps going with the Cherokee girl old folks stand to pat in their hands smiling and tapping their feet chapter 25 the spring beautiful in California valleys in which the fruit blossoms are fragrant pink and white waters in a shallow sea the first tendrils of grapes swelling from the old narrow vines and on the level vegetable lands are the mile long rows of pale green lettuce the spindly cauliflower the gray green unearthly artichoke plants behind the fruitfulness are men of understanding who experiment with seed endlessly developing techniques for greater crops of plants whose roots will resist the millions of enemies of the earth molds, insects rusts and blights and there are men of chemistry who spray the trees against pests who sulfur the grapes who cut out diseases and rots men who graft the young trees the little vines are the cleverest of all bears is a surgeon's job to place the grafts to bind the wounds and to cover them from the air these are great men first the cherries ripen set in half a pounds hell we can't pick them for that black cherries red cherries and birds eat half of each and the yellow jackets buzz into the holes the birds make the purple prunes soften and sweeten my god we can't pick them and dry we can't sell for them and the purple prunes carpet the ground and the pears grow yellow and soft the yellow jackets dig into the soft meat and there is a smell of ferment and rot then the grapes we can't make good wine people can't buy good wine rip the grapes from the vines good grapes, rotten grapes wasp, stung grapes press stems, press dirt and rot oh well it has alcohol in it anyway they can get drunk the little farmers watch debt creep up on them like the tide the orchard will be a part of a great holding next year for the debt will have choked the owner this vineyard will belong to the bank carloads of oranges dumped on the ground a million hungry people needing the fruit and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains and the smell of rot fills the country burn coffee for fuel in the ships burn corn to keep warm dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out slaughter the pigs and bury them and let the putresids drip down into the earth there is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation there is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize there is a failure here that topples all success in the eyes of the people there is a failure and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath in the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy growing heavy for the vintage chapter 27 cotton pickers wanted placards on the road handbills out orange collared handbills here at the road it says the dark green plants stringing out the heavy bowls clutched in the pod white cotton spilling out like popcorn I'm a good picker here is the man right here I aim to pick some cotton got a bag if you know I ain't cost you a dollar the bag if you ain't got the buck we'll take it out of your first 150 80 cents a hundred first time over the field that's fair and you know it sure it's fair good cotton bag last of all season and when she's wore out dragging, turning around using the other end when both ants is gone and well hell the cotton bag's a good it's a bag, it's a nice thing sacks full now take it to the scales argue, scaleman says you got rocks to make weight how about him his scales is fixed sometimes he's right you got rocks always argue, always fight keep your head up always argue, hunt along now they say a thousand men are on their way to this field we'll be fighting for our road tomorrow we'll be snatching cotton quick cotton pickers wanted more men picking quicker to the gin side meet tonight by god we got money for side meet stick out a hand to the little fella he's wore out run on a head and kid four pounds of side meet the old woman will make some nice biscuits tonight if she ain't too tired chapter 29 the flood over the high coast mountains and over the valleys the grey clouds marched in from the sea the wind blew fiercely and silently high in the air and swished in the brush and roared in the forests the clouds came in brokenly and puffs and folds they piled in together and settled low over the west and then the wind stopped and left the clouds deep and solid the rain began with gusty showers pauses and downpours and then gradually it settled to a single tempo small drops and steady beat rain that was grey to see through rain that cut midday light to evening and at first the dry earth sucked the moisture down and blackened for two days the earth drank the rain until the earth was full then puddles formed and in the low places like in the low places little lakes formed in the fields a muddy lake rose higher and the steady rain whipped the shining water and last the mountains were full and the hillsides spilled into the streams built them to freshettes and set them roaring down the canyons into the valleys the rain beat on steadily and the streams and the little rivers edged up the banksides and worked at willows and tree roots bent the willows deep in the current cut out the roots of cotton woods and brought down the trees the muddy water world along the banksides crept up the banks until it lasted spilled over into the fields to the orchards to the cotton patches the black stems stood level fields became lakes broad and gray and the rain whipped up the surfaces then the water poured over the highways and cars moved slowly cutting the water ahead and leaving a boiling, muddy wake behind the earth whispered under the heat of the rain and the streams thundered under the churning of freshettes when the first rain started the migrant people huddled in their tents saying it'll soon be over and asking how long is it likely to go on and when the puddles formed the men went out in the rain with shovels and built little dikes around the tents the beating rain worked at the canvas until it penetrated and sent streams down and then the little dikes washed out and the water came inside and the streams wet the beds and the blankets the people sat in wet clothes they set up boxes and put planks on the boxes then day and night they sat on the planks beside the tents the old cars stood and water fouled the ignition wires and water fouled the carburetors the little gray tents stood in lakes and at last the people had to move then the cars wouldn't start because the wires were shorted and if the engines would run deep mud engulfed the wheels and the people waited away carrying their blankets and their arms they splashed along carrying the children carrying the very old in their arms and if a barn stood on high ground it was filled with people shivering and hopeless then some went to the relief offices and they came sadly back to their own people these rules you got to be here a year before you can get relief they say the government is going to help they don't know when and gradually the greatest terror of all came along they ain't going to be no kind to work for three months in the barns the people sat huddled together the terror came over them their faces were grey with terror the children cried with hunger and there was no food then the sickness came pneumonia and measles that went to the eyes and the mastoids and the rain fell steadily in the water float over the highways for the culverts could not carry the water then from the tents from the crowded barns groups of sodden men went out their clothes sloping rags, their shoes muddy pulp they splashed out through the water to the towns, to the country source to the relief offices to cringe and beg for food to beg for relief to try to steal to lie and under the begging and under the cringing a hopeless anger began to smolder and in the little towns pity for the sodden men changed to anger an anger at the hungry people changed to fear of them then sheriffs sworn deputies in droves and orders were rushed for rifles for tear gas for ammunition then the hungry men crowded the alleys behind the stores to beg for bread to beg for rotting vegetables to steal when they could frantic men pounded on the doors of the doctors and the doctors were busy and sad men left word at country stores for the coroner to send a car the coroners were not too busy the coroner's wagons backed up through the mud and took out the dead and the rain pattern relentlessly down and the streams broke their banks and spread out over the country huddled under sheds lying in wet hay the hunger and the fear read anger the boys went out not to beg but to steal and men went out weekly to try to steal the sheriffs swore in new deputies and ordered new rifles the comfortable people in tight houses felt pity at first and then distaste and finally hatred for the migrant people in the wet hay the babies were born to women who panted with pneumonia and old people curled up in corners and died that way so that the coroners could not straighten them at night the frantic men walked boldly to hen roosts and carried off a squacking chickens if they were shot at they did not run but splashed away suddenly and if they were hit the rain stopped on the fields the water stood reflecting the grey sky and the land whispered with moving water and the men came out of the barns out of the sheds they squatted on their hams and looked out over the flooded land and they were silent and sometimes they talked very quietly no work till spring no work and if no work no money no food fella had a team of horses had to use them to plow and cultivate and mow wouldn't think of turning them out to starve when they wasn't working them's horses we're men the women watched the men watched to see whether the break had come at last the women stood silently and watched and where a number of men gathered together the fear went from their faces and anger took its place and the women sighed with relief for they knew it was all right the break had not come and the break would never come as long as fear could turn to wrath tiny points of grass came through the earth and in a few days the hills were pale green with the beginning gear