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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 16, 2018 - 01:43pm PT
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Modesto in the thirties had a community known as Little Arkansas on
one side of a canal bank and one known as Little Oklahoma on the other....
all or most of the families on certain streets in Little Oklahoma were
from the same county or small town in Oklahoma....
The established towns and cities strenuously resisted petitions to
extend roads, sewers and other facilities to the satellite migrant
settlements and regarded annexation as unthinkable. In such a setting
it is not surprising that Okies and Arkies were promptly stereotyped
as a minority. The characteristics that were assigned to them were,
of course, that they were dirty, shiftless, of loose sexual morals,
improvident, lazy, and had far, far too many children.
At the high point of this anti-Okie hullabaoo, a sign appeared in
the foyer of a second-rate Bakersfield movie house which read:
"Negroes and Okies upstairs."
--Carey McWilliams, article on John Steinbeck,
"A Man, a Place, and a Time"
These people were American citizens, not immigrants.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 20, 2018 - 08:46am PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 22, 2018 - 08:42pm PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 13, 2018 - 12:23pm PT
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Edit: Range as in rangeland, okay? In future I shall make other arrangements.
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Robb
Social climber
Cat Box
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Sep 13, 2018 - 05:24pm PT
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Mouse,
To CV folk, they were immigrant okies!
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Bargainhunter
climber
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Sep 13, 2018 - 10:04pm PT
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Thanks Mouse for your January post of the Paul Taylor/Dorthea Lange piece! Just now seeing that. Amazing how great journalism, in particular just that single photograph, can make a huge difference in galvanizing public and governmental support for the downtrodden and oppressed. Terrible President we have now that does nothing but lie and bash the free press.
The "King of California" was an amazing book about the history of agriculture in CV, as was "The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland" -a required coffee table book for anyone interested in the CV.
I lived in Visalia for a number of years and can state straight up that the Okie/Arkie divide and exchanged insults are alive and well. I never knew there was a pecking order of 'white trash' pedigree but I had nurses at work explain it to me. The term "DBO" ("Ditch bank Okie") was still frequently used. While I was there a few years ago, plenty of impoverished were still camping under flimsy tarps along the dry banks of the St. Johns River. In the summer heat that seemed barely survivable. Still, the poor bashing sentiment was alive as well (much of the CV is politically very conservative), and of course the Latino and SE immigrant laborers in San Joaquin Valley now receive plenty of unfair rebuke despite their difficult and under-appreciated work of supplying our nation with 25% of ALL of it's produce. The immigrant laborers of the CV should be championed for their proud work and lionized, not shat upon. Viva Ceasar Chavez!
Occasional we'd have a elderly patient from Pixley or some little CV town who'd speak just like she was back in the 1920's straight out of Grapes of Wrath. Fascinating living history there!
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donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
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Sep 14, 2018 - 07:29am PT
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One can always find beauty where the heart is.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Sep 14, 2018 - 07:36am PT
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David Knopp
Trad climber
CA
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Sep 14, 2018 - 08:03am PT
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Hey Throwpie-you sell any of that art?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Dec 19, 2018 - 11:36am PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Dec 20, 2018 - 04:56am PT
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Well, that's so cool, cuz Vern and I drove to Modesto
yesterdo and drove past this place where you might find chapattie fixin's
but he didn't wanna stop as we were just makin' a run to find some Blue
Dream and some gummies and then he needed to be back in Merced so we
didn't stop but maybe we will next time. Notice the signage for Gill Pharmacy? Cor blimey that was funny.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 31, 2019 - 05:26am PT
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A sparkling clear February day.
I wish that there WERE more clear days!
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mike a.
Sport climber
ca
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Jan 31, 2019 - 08:13am PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Feb 20, 2019 - 05:43am PT
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In general, Atwater sucks no less or more than anywhere else in the mid-valley.
I must give you compliments on those shots above, DMT. Marvelous.
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