- When you be back, Roy? - Oh, in a couple of weeks.
- Don't do nothin' you wouldn't want me to hear about. - Oh!
- Well, so long! - So long!
How about a lift, mister?
- Can't you see that sticker? - Sure, I see it...
but a good guy don't pay no attention to what some heel makes him stick on his truck.
Well, scrunch down on the running board till we get around the bend.
- Going far? - Nah, just a couple of miles.
I'd have walked 'er if my dogs wasn't pooped out.
- Looking for a job? - No. My old man's got a place... 40 acres.
He's a sharecropper, but we been there a long while.
Oh.
- Been doin' the job? - Yeah.
I seen your hands.
You been swingin' a pick or a sledge. That's what makes them shiny.
I notice little things like that all the time.
Got a trade?
- Why don't you get at it, buddy? - Get at what?
You know what I'm talking about. You been goin' over me ever since I got in.
- Why don't you ask me where I've been? - I don't stick my nose in anybody's business.
- Nah, not much! - I stay in my own yard.
That big nose of yours has been goin' over me like a sheep in a vegetable patch.
Well, I ain't keepin' it a secret. I been in the penitentiary...
- Been there four years. Anything else you want to know? - You ain't gotta get sore.
- Go ahead. Ask me anything. - I didn't mean nothin'.
Me, neither. I'm just trying to get along without shoving anybody, that's all.
See that road ahead? That's where I get out.
You're about to bust a gut to know what I done, ain't you?
Well, I ain't a guy to let you down.
Homicide.
* Mm-mmm, He's my savior *
* Mmm, mmm, mmm, my savior *
* Mmm, mmm, mmm my savior now **
- Howdy, friend. - Howdy.
Say, ain't you young Tom Joad, old Tom's boy?
Yeah. I'm on my way home now.
Well, I do declare.
I baptized you, son.
Ain't you the preacher?
Used to be. Not no more.
I lost the call.
But, boy, I sure used to have it.
I used to get an irrigation ditch so squirmin' full of repented sinners...
I'd pretty near drown half of'em.
But not no more.
I lost the spirit.
I got nothin' to preach about no more, that's all.
I ain't so sure of things.
I remember you preachin' a whole sermon...
walkin' around on your hands, shoutin' your head off.
Yeah, I remember. Went pretty good that way.
But that was nothin'.
Why, I preached a whole sermon once straddlin' the ridgepole of a barn...
like this.
- You see that one? - No.
You didn't?
Oh.
Well, it's all gone, anyway.
You should've got yourself a wife.
Why, at my meetings, I used to get the girls a-glory-shoutin' till they about pass out.
Then I'd go to comfort 'em.
I'd always end up by lovin' 'em.
I'd feel bad and pray and pray, but it didn't do no good.
Next time, do it again.
I figured I just wasn't worth savin'.
Pa always says you was never cut out for no preacher.
I never let one get by me if I could catch her. Have a snort?
But you wasn't a preacher!
A girl was just a girl to you.
To me, they's holy vessels.
I was savin' their souls.
I asked myself, what is this here called "Holy Spirit"?
Maybe that's love.
Why, I love everybody so much...
I'm fit to bust sometimes!
So maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue.
It's just what people does.
Some things folks do is nice and some ain't so nice.
And that's all any man's got a right to say.
Of course, I'll say a grace if somebody sets out the food...
but my heart ain't in it.
- Nice drinkin' liquor. - Yeah, it ought to be. That's factory liquor. Cost me a buck.
You been out travelin' around?
Oh, ain't you heard? It's been in the papers.
- No, I never. What? - I been in the penitentiary for four years.
Oh, excuse me for askin'.
I don't mind no more. I'd do what I done again.
Killed a guy in a dance hall.
We was drunk, he got a knife in me and I laid him out with a shovel.
Knocked his head plumb to squash.
- You ain't ashamed? - Nah. He had a knife in me...
That's why they only give me seven years. I got out in four... parole.
- Ain't seen your folks since? - No, but I aim to 'fore sundown.
And I'm gettin' excited about it too. Which way you goin'?
Oh, it don't matter.
Ever since I lost the spirit, I'd...
it looks like I'd just as soon go one way as the other.
I'll go your way.
Maybe Ma'll have pork for supper.
I ain't had pork but four times in four years... every Christmas.
I'll be glad to see your pa.
Last time I seen him was at a baptizin'.
He had one of the biggest doses of the Holy Spirit I ever seen.
Got to jumpin' over bushes, howlin' like a dog-wolf at moon time.
Finally, he picks hisself out a bush big as a piano.
And he lets out a squawk and takes a run at that bush.
Well, he cleared her...
but he busted his leg snap 'n two doin' it.
There was a travelin' dentist there and he set her...
and I give her a prayin' over...
but there wasn't no more Holy Spirit left in your pa after that.
Listen. That wind's fixin'to do somethin'.
Sure, it is. Always is this time of year.
Ma?
Pa?
Ma?
Ain't nobody here? Something's happened.
You got a match?
They're all gone or dead.
- They never wrote you nothin'? - Nah, they wasn't people to write.
It's Ma's. She had 'em for years.
Used to be mine. I give it to Grandpa when I went away.
You reckon they're dead?
I never heard nothin' about it.
Tommy?
- Muley.! Where's my folks, Muley? - Why, they gone.
I know they're gone, but where they gone?
It's Muley Graves. You remember the preacher, don't you?
- I ain't no preacher anymore. - All right. You remember the man, don't you?
- Glad to see you again. - Glad to see you.
- Now, where are my folks? - They gone.
They gone to your UncleJohn's... the whole crowd of'em... two weeks ago.
But they can't stay there either, 'causeJohn's got his notice to get off.
Well, what happened? How come they got to get off?
We lived here 50 years, same place.
Everybody's got to get off.
Everybody's leavin', goin' out to California.
Your folks, my folks, everybody's folks.
Everybody except me. I ain't gettin' off.
Who done it?
Listen. That's some of what done it.
The dusters. They started it, anyways.
Blowin' like this year after year.
Blowin' the land away, blowin' the crops away...
and blowin' us away now!
You crazy?
Some say I am.
- You want to hear how it happened? - That's what I'm askin' you, ain't it?
Well, the way it happens...
the way it happened to me...
a man come one day...
Fact of the matter, Muley, after what them dusters done to the land...
the tenant system don't work no more.
You don't even break even, much less show a profit.
Why, one man and a tractor can handle 12 or 14 of these places.
You just pay him a wage and take all the crop.
Yeah, but we couldn't do on any less than what our share is now.
Well, the children ain't gettin' enough to eat as it is.
And they're so ragged...
We'd be ashamed if everybody else's children wasn't the same way.
I can't help that. All I know is I got my orders.
They told me to tell you to get off, and that's what I'm tellin' ya.
You mean get off my own land?
Now, don't go to blamin' me. It ain't my fault.
- Whose fault is it? - You know who owns the land...
The Shawnee Land and Cattle Company.
- And who's the Shawnee Land and Cattle Company? - It ain't nobody. It's a company.
They got a president, ain't they?
They got somebody that knows what a shotgun's for, ain't they?
Oh, son, it ain't his fault, because the bank tells him what to do.
All right, where's the bank?
Tulsa. And what's the use of pickin' on him?
He ain't nothin' but the manager, and he's half crazy hisself...
tryin' to keepin' up with his orders from the East.
- Then who do we shoot? - Brother, I don't know.
If I did, I'd tell you. I just don't know who's to blame.
Well, I'm right here to tell you, mister, there ain't nobody gonna push me off my land!
My grandpa took up this land 70 years ago!
My pa was born here! We was all born on it!
And some of us was killed on it!
And some of us... died on it.
And that's what makes it our'n...
bein' born on it...
and workin' on it...
and dyin'... dyin' on it!
And not no piece of paper with writin' on it...
Well, what happened?
They come. They come and pushed me off.
- They come with the Cats. - The what?
The Cats. The Caterpillar tractors.
And for every one of'em...
there was 10, 15 families throwed right out of their homes.
A hundred folks and no place to live but on the road.
The Rances, the Peterses, the Perrys, theJoads.
One right after the other, they got throwed out.
Half the folks you and me know throwed right out into the road.
The one that got me come, oh, about a month ago.
- Go on back! Go on back! - Tell 'em, Muley.
I'm warnin' you, go on back!
You come any closer and I'm gonna blow you right out of that Cat!
I told you.!
Why, you'reJoe Davis's boy!
I don't like for nobody to draw a bead on me.
Then what are you doin' a thing like this for, against your own people?
$3.00 a day... that's what I'm doin' it for.
I got two little kids at home, my wife, my wife's mother.
Them folks got to eat. First and only, I think about my own folks.
What happen to other people... their own lookout.
Yeah, but you don't understand, son. This is my land!
Used to be your land. It's the company's now.
Have it your own way, son...
but just as sure as you touch my house with that Cat...
I'm gonna blow you plumb to kingdom come!
You ain't gonna blow nobody nowhere.
First place, they'd hang you, and you know it.
For another, it wouldn't be two days 'fore they'd send another guy up here to take my place.
Now, go on! Get out of the way!
What was the use?
He was right, and there wasn't a thing in the world I could do about it.
Just, it don't seem possible, just gettin' throwed off like that.
The rest of my family set out for the West.
There wasn't nothing to eat, but I couldn't leave.
Somethin'just wouldn't let me.
So now I just wander around and sleep wherever I am.
I used to tell myself that I was lookin' out for things...
so that when the folks come back, everything'd be all right.
But I knowed it wasn't true.
There ain't nothin' to look out for...
and there ain't nobody ever comin' back.
They're gone!
And me, I'm just an old graveyard ghost.
That's all in the world I am!
Do you think I'm touched?
No.
You're lonely, but... you ain't touched.
Well, it don't matter.
If I'm touched, I'm touched, and that's all there is to it.
Thing I don't understand is my folks taking it.
Like Ma. I seen her nearly beat a peddler to death with a live chicken.
She aimed to go for him with the ax she had in her other hand.
She got mixed up, forgot which was which...
and when she got through with that peddler, all she had left was two chicken legs.
Just a... Just a plain, old graveyard ghost.
That's all.
She's settlin'.
What do you figure on doin'?
Ah, it's hard to say.
Stay here till morning. Go to UncleJohn's, I reckon.
After that, I don't know.
Listen.
That's them... them lights.
Come on! Come on! We got to hide out.
Hide out for what? We ain't doin' nothin'.
Well, you're trespassing, Tom!
This ain't your land no more, and that's the superintendent with a gun. Come on!
Come on, Tom. You're on parole.
Muley!
All you got to do is hide and watch.
- Won't they come out here? - I don't think so.
- One came out once and I clipped him from behi... - Shh.
Behind with-with a fence stake.
They ain't bothered since.
He ain't here.
If anybody ever told me I'd be hiding out at my own place...
Lord, make us grateful for what we are about to receive for His sake. Amen.
I seen you. You ate durin' grace.
Just one little dab! Just one teeny little dab, that's all!
Ain't he messy, though?
I seen him, gobblin' away like an old pig!
Why don't you keep your eyes shut durin' grace, you old...
What's it say again, UncleJohn?
It says, "Plenty of work in California. 800 pickers wanted."
Wait till I get to California!
I'm gonna reach up and pick me an orange whenever I want it!
Or some grapes! Now... Now-Now-Now, there's somethin' I ain't never had enough of.
I'm gonna get me a whole big bunch of grapes off of the bush...
and I'm gonna squash them all over my face...
and let the juice drain down off of my chin.
Praise the Lord for vittery!
M-M-M-Maybe I'll get me a whole washtub full of grapes...
and just sit in 'em and scrounge around in 'em until they're all gone.
I sure would like that.
Yes, sir, I sure would like that. Yeah.
Oh, thank God! Thank God!
Tommy.!
Ma.
Oh!
You didn't bust out, did you? You ain't gotta hide, have ya?
No, Ma, I'm paroled. I got my papers.
Oh. I was so scared we was goin' away without you...
and we'd never see each other again.
I'd have found you, Ma.
Muley told me what happened.
You goin' to California true?
Oh, we got to go, Tommy, but it's gonna be all right.
I seen the handbills about how much work they is and high wages too.
There's somethin' I gotta find out first, Tommy.
Did they hurt you, son? Did they hurt you and make you mean mad?
- Mad, Ma? - Sometimes they do.
No, Ma. I was at first, but not no more.
Sometimes they do somethin' to you.
They hurt you and you get mad and then you get mean.
Then they hurt you again and you get meaner and meaner...
till you ain't no boy nor man anymore...
just a walkin' chunk of mean mad.
Did they hurt you that way, son?
No, Ma, don't worry about that.
Well, I... I don't want no mean son.
- It's Tommy! It's Tommy back! - Tommy.!
- What'd you do, son, bust out? - * Tommy's out of jail *
- * Tommy's out of jail, Tommy's out of... ** - I... I knowed it!
You couldn't keep him in! You can't keep a Joad in jail!
I knowed it from the first!
Get out of my way! I told you so! I told you!
Tom'd come bustin' out of that jail just like a bull through a corral fence!
- You can't keep a Joad in jail! - I didn't bust out. They paroled me.
L-I was that way myself.
How are you, UncleJohn?
- Hello, Tommy. I'm feelin' fine. - You can't keep a Joad in jail.!
- How are you, Noah? - Fine, Tommy.
- Bust out? - No, paroled.
- Hello. - Tommy!
The jailbird's back! The jailbird's back!
Tommy's back! Tommy's back!
Jailbird's back!
- Hiya, Al.! - Hello, Tom. Did you bust out of jail?
- Nah. They paroled me. - Aw...
Rosasharn!
Busted out!
That's Connie Rivers with her. They're married now.
She's due now about three, four months.
She wasn't any more than a kid when I went up.
- Hi, Rosasharn. - How are you, Tom?
Uh, this is Connie, my husband.
- Did you... - I'm on parole.
Eh, if this don't beat all. I see I'm gonna be an uncle soon.
Oh, you do not!
- Here you go! - Look at the front!
Hey, Joad! John Joad!
- You ain't forgot, have you? - We ain't forgot.
We'll be comin' through here tomorrow, you know.
I know. We be out.
We be out by sunup.
How'd you get all this money?
We sold things, chopped cotton... even Grandpa.
Got us about $200, all told.
Shucked out 75 for this here truck.
Still got nearly 150 to set out on.
I figure we ought to be able make her on that.
Easy. After all, they ain't but about 12 of us, is they?
- She'll probably ride like a bull calf, but she'll ride! - Tom.!
Well, I reckon we better begin roustin' 'em out...
if we aim to get out of here by daylight.
- How about it, John? How are you boys comin'? - All right.
Ma.!
I'm ready.
Rosasharn, honey, wake up the children! We're fixin' to leave.
Ruthie, Winfield, jump up, now.
Where's Grandpa? Al, go get him.
I'm gonna get up front. Somebody help me.
- Wait a minute... - Somebody help me.
- * We're going to California * - Here kids. Kids, you climb up on top.
Al's gonna drive, Ma. You set up there with him and Grandma, and we'll swap around later.
- Where we go, Pa? - Connie, help Rosasharn up there alongside the kids.
- * We're going to California We're going to California - Where's Grandpa?
- Grandpa! - Where he always is, probably.
Oh!
Grandpa! Grandpa!
Well, save my place. John, you and Noah climb up and find yourself a place.
Got to kind ofkeep her even all around.
Think it'll hold?
If it does, it'll be a miracle out of scripture.
Ma.! Pa.!
Darn ya! Let...
- You little... - There's somethin' the matter with Pa.
- Stand still! - There's somethin' wrong with him!
Chicken! You heard...
Should've left me alone, that's all. That's all wh...
What's the matter, Grandpa?
What's the matter? There's nothin' the matter.
I just... I just ain't goin', that's all.
What do you mean, you ain't goin'? We got to go.
We got no place to stay.
I ain't talkin' about you! I'm-I'm talkin' about me!
I give her a good goin' over all last night, and I'm a-stayin'.
But you can't do that, Grandpa!
This here land's goin' under the tractor. We all got to get out.
All except me, and I'm stayin'.
- What about Grandma? - Take her with ya!
- Who'd cook for you, Grandpa? How you gonna live?
Muley's livin', ain't he?
And I'm twice the man that Muley is!
Now, listen to me, Grandpa. Listen to me just a minute.
And I ain't listenin', either!
I's told you what I was gonna do...
and I don't give a hoot and a holler...
if there's oranges and grapes a-crowdin' a feller out of bed!
I ain't goin' to California!
This is my country, and I belong here! Yes, my...
my dirt.
It's no good, but it's... it's mine, all mine.
Either we gotta tie him up and throw him in the truck or somethin'. He can't stay here.
No, can't tie him. Either we'll hurt him, or he'll get so mad he'll hurt hisself.
- Reckon we could get him drunk? - Ain't no whiskey, is there?
Now, wait. They's a half a bottle of soothin' syrup here.
Here. Used to put the children to sleep.
- Don't taste bad. - There's some coffee left. We can fix him a cup.
That's right, and douse some in it.
Better give him a good dose. He's mighty muleheaded.
If Muley...
If Muley can scrabble along, I...
I guess I can.
I smell spareribs.
Huh. Somebody's been eatin' spareribs.
How come I ain't got none?
Well, I got some saved for you, Grandpa. Got some a-warmin' now.
- Eh? - But here's a cup of coffee for you first.
Uh, get me a mess of spareribs.
I want a great big mess of spareribs!
I'm-I'm hungry.
Why, sure, you're hungry.
I sure do like spareribs.
Yeah.
- Get up there, Noah. - Put his feet in there first, now.
Lend a hand. Easy, now. Easy!
Better throw somethin' over him so he won't get sunstruck.
Everything all set now? All right! Let her go, Al!
Here we go!
Get aboard, Ma!
- Well, good-bye and good luck. - Hold it, Al!
- Ain't you goin' with us? - I'd like to.
There's somethin' goin' on out there in the West...
and I'd like to try and learn what it is...
if you feel you got the room.
- Mmm. - Plenty of room! Get on!
- Hop on, Casy! - Let her go, Al!
- California, here we come! - You kids...
Ain't you gonna look back, Ma? Give the old place a last look?
We're goin' to California, ain't we? All right, then, let's go to California.
That don't sound like you, Ma. You never was like that before.
I never had my house pushed over before.
Never had my family stuck out in the road...
never had to lose everything I had in life.
- I ain't goin'. - It's gonna be all right, Grandpa.
- That's good right there, Ma. - I ain't goin'! I ain't goin'.
I ain't goin'. I ain't... I ain't a-goin'.
It's all right, Grandpa.
You're just tired, that's all.
That's it... just tired.
Just... tired.
"This here is William James Joad, died of a stroke.
"Old, old man.
"His folks buried him because they got no money...
to pay for funeral..."Sss...
"Nobody killed him. Just a stroke and he died."
Figure best we leave something like this on him...
- unless somebody digs him up, makes out he was killed. - Hmm.
Looks like a lot of times the government's got more interest...
in a dead man than a live one.
Not be so lonesome, knowin' his name's there with him.
Not just an old fella lonesome underground.
Won't you say a few words, Casy?
I ain't a preacher no more, you know.
We know, but ain't none of our folks ever been buried without a few words.
I'll say 'em, make it short.
This here old man just lived a life and just died out of it.
I don't know whether he was good or bad.
It don't matter much.
Heard a fella say a poem once...
and he says, "All that lives is holy."
Well, I wouldn't pray just for an old man that's dead, 'cause he's all right.
If I was to pray, I'd pray for folks that's alive and don't know which way to turn.
Grandpa here, he ain't got no more trouble like that.
He's got his job all cut out for him, so...
cover him up and let him get to it.
* I'm goin' down the road feelin' bad *
* Oh, Lordy *
*I ain't a-gonna be
*A-treated this a-way
* They fed me on corn bread and beans
Huh. Gosh.
Connie sure sings pretty, don't he?
* Oh, Lordy
* I ain't a-gonna be a-treated this a-way **
- That's my son-in-law. - Sings real nice.
- What state you all from? - Oklahoma.
Had us a farm there, sharecroppin'.
We're from Arkansas.
Had me a store there... kind of a general notions store.
When the farms went, the stores went too.
I had as nice a little store as you ever saw.
I sure did hate to give it up.
Well, you can't tell.
I figure when we get out there and get work...
and maybe get us a piece of growin' land near water, it might not be so bad at that.
That's right. Payin' good wages, I hear.
- We can all get work. - Can't be no worse than home.
You all must have a pot of money.
No, we ain't got no money...
but there's plenty of us to work, and we're all good men.
Get good wages out there and put it all together, and we'll be all right.
Good wages, eh? Pickin' oranges and peaches?
- Well, we aim to take whatever they got. - What's so funny about that?
What's so funny about it? I've just been out there. I've been and seen it.
I'm goin' back and starve, because I'd rather starve all over at once.
Say, what do you think you're talkin' about?
I got a handbill here says they're payin' good wages.
And I seen the papers that they need pickers.
All right, go on. Nobody's stoppin' ya.
- Yeah, but what about this? - I ain't gonna rile ya. Go on.
What a minute, buddy. You just done some jackassin'. You can't shut up now.
The handbill says they need 800 pickers.
You laugh and say they don't. Which one's the liar?
How many of you all got them handbills?
- I got one. - Come on. How many?
- I got one. - We all got one.
What does that prove?
There you are... same yellow handbill.
"700 pickers wanted."
All right. The man wants 700 men...
so he prints 5,000 handbills, and maybe 20,000 people see them...
and maybe two or three thousand people start west on account of that handbill.
Two or three thousand people that are crazy with worry...
heading out for 700 jobs.
- Now, does that make sense? - Say, what are you, a troublemaker?
You sure you ain't one of them labor fakes?
L... I swear I ain't, mister.
Well, don't you go around here trying to stir up any trouble.
I tried to tell you folks what it took me a year to find out.
Took two kids dead, took my wife dead to show me...
but nobody could tell me, neither.
I can't tell you about them little fellas layin' in their tent...
with their bellies swelled out and just skin over their bones...
a-shiverin'and a-whinin'like pups.
And me a-runnin'around lookin'for work...
not for money, not for wages...
just for a cup offlour and a spoon oflard.
Then the coroner come.
"Them children died of heart failure," he said. He put it down on his paper.
Heart failure?
And their little bellies stuck out like a pig bladder?
Well, guess we gotta get some sleep.
Well, good night, folks.
Suppose he's tellin' the truth, that fella?
He's tellin' the truth...
the truth for him.
He wasn't makin' it up.
Was it the truth for us?
I don't know.
- I got to get out. - Okay.
I got to get out now.!
- You folks aim to buy anything? - We want some gas, mister.
- Got any money? - What do you think? We're beggin'?
I just asked, that's all.
Well, ask right. You ain't talkin' to bums, you know.
All in the world I done was asked.
- What kind of pie you got? - Banana cream, pineapple cream...
chocolate cream and apple.
Cut me off a hunk of that banana cream. And a cup of java.
- Make it two. - Two it is.
Seen any good etchings lately, Bill?
Well, this one ain't bad. A little kid comes late for school, and the teacher says...
Cheese it.
Could you see your way clear to sell us a loaf of bread, ma'am?
This ain't a grocery store. We got bread to make sandwiches with.
I know, ma'am. Only it's for an old lady, no teeth.
Got to soften it with water so she can chew it. And she's hungry.
Why don't you buy a sandwich? We got nice sandwiches.
Well, I... I sure would like to do that, ma'am...
but the fact is, we ain't got but a dime for it.
It's all figured out... I mean, for the trip.
You can't buy no loaf of bread for a dime. We only got 15-cent loaves.
- Give him the bread. - We'll run out 'fore the bread truck comes!
All right! Then we run out!
- This here's a 15-cent loaf. - Well, would you...
Could you see your way to cuttin' off ten cents' worth?
- Give 'im the loaf. - No, sir.
We want to buy ten cents' worth, that's all.
Go on. It's yesterday's bread.
Go ahead. Bert says to take it.
Well, may sound funny bein' so tight...
but we got a thousand miles to go...
and we don't know if we'll make it.
- Eh, is them penny candies, ma'am? - Which ones?
- There, them stripy ones. - Oh, them?
Well, uh, no.
- Them's two for a penny. - Uh, give us two then, ma'am.
Go on, take 'em. Take 'em.
Thank you, ma'am.
Them ain't two-for-a-cent candy.
- What's it to you? - Them's a nickel apiece candy.
We'd better get goin'. We're droppin' time.
- So long. - Hey, wait a minute. You got change comin'.
What's it to you?
Bert.
Look.
Truck drivers.
- Where you going? - California.
- How long you plan to be in Arizona? - No longer than to get across.
- Got any plants? - No. No plants.
Okay. Go ahead, but keep movin'.
We aim to.
Well, there she is, folks. The land a milk and honey...
California.
Well, if that's what we come out here for...
Well, Connie, maybe it's nice on the other side.
Them little picture postcards, they was real pretty.
There, Grandma. There's California.
Let's get goin'. She don't look so tough to me, eh, John?
Well, I don't know.
Hold on.
Ain't too cold is she, Tom?
No. It's fine when you get in, Pa!
Come on, John. Let's give her a whirl.
You know, this is supposed to be good for ya, John.
- Come on, Pa, before she floats away! - Here we come!
- You people got a lot of nerve. - What you mean?
Crossin' the desert in a jalopy like this.
- You been across? - Sure, plenty, but...
never in no wreck like that.
If we break down maybe somebody'd give us a hand.
Well, maybe. But I'd hate to be doin' it. Takes more nerve than I got.
It don't take no nerve to do somethin' ain't nothin' else you can do.
Hope she holds.
Grandpa.
I want Grandpa.
Oh, don't you fret now.
Oh, there.
Don't you fret now, Grandma.
Everybody set back there?
- Yep. - All right, here we go!
Thank ya very much.
Holy Moses, what a hard-lookin' outfit.
All them Okies is hard-lookin'.
Boy, but I'd hate to hit that desert in a jalopy like that.
You and me got sense. Them Okies got no sense or no feelin'.
They ain't human. No, a human being wouldn't live way they do.
Human bein' couldn't stand to be so miserable.
Just don't know any better, I guess.
What a place!
How'd you like to walk across her?
People done it. If they could, we could.
Lots must a died too.
Well, we ain't outta it yet.
- This here's the desert, and we're right in it! - I wish it was day.
Tom says if it was day, it'd cut the gizzard right out a ya.
I seen a picture once, and there was bones everywhere.
- Man bones? - Uh, some, I guess, but mostly cow bones.
I sure would like to see some of them man bones.
Grandpa.
- I want Grandpa. - Yes.
Now, everything's going to be all right.
We got to get across, Grandma.
The family's got to get across.
There.
It seems like we wasn't never doin' nothin' but movin'.
- I'm tired. - Women is always tired.
You ain't... You ain't sorry, are you, honey?
No, but...
But you seen that advertisement in the Spicy Western Story magazine.
Don't pay nothin'. Just send 'em the coupon...
and you're a radio expert... nice clean work.
- But we can still do it, honey. - I ought to done it then...
not come on any trip like this.
- What's this here? - Agricultural inspection.
We got to go over your stuff. Got any vegetables or seed?
- No. - Well, we got to look over your stuff.
- You got to unload. - Unload?
Holy Moses.
Sorry, folks, but you'll have to get out while we unload for inspection.
Oh, look, mister. We got a sick old lady.
We got to get her to a doctor. We can't wait! You can't make us wait!
- Yeah? Well, we got to look you over. - I swear we ain't got anything.
I swear it. And Grandma's awful sick.
Look.
You wasn't foolin'.
- You swear you got no fruit or vegetables? - No, I swear it.
Then go ahead. You can get a doctor at Barstow. That's just eight miles.
But don't stop. Don't get off. Understand?
- Thanks. - Okay, cap. Much obliged.
Thanks.
Ma! Grandma! Look!
There she is! There she is!
- I never knowed there was anything like her! - Will ya look at her!
Lookee yonder, John.
Look how pretty and green it is, Winfield.!
- Wonder if them's orange trees, John. - Look like orange trees to me.
- Well, they sure are pretty, whatever they are. - Oh, yes indeed.
Look at them haystacks.! I bet we could sure have fun playin'over there.
Pretty, ain't it? Mighty pretty.
Where's Ma? I want Ma to see this.
Look, Ma! Come here, Ma!
- You sick, Ma? - You say we got across?
- Look! - Oh, thank God!
And we're still together... most of us.
Didn't you sleep none?
- Was Grandma bad? - Grandma's dead.
When?
Since before they stopped us last night.
That's why you didn't want 'em to look, huh?
Well, I was afraid they'd stop us and we wouldn't get across.
I told Grandma. I told her when she was dyin'.
I told her the family had to get across.
I told her we couldn't take no chance on bein' stopped.
So it's all right.
She'll get buried where it's nice and green...
and trees and flowers all around and...
She got to lay her head down in California after all.
Whoa. That's good.
How far you figure you're gonna get that way, pushin'?
Right here. We run outta gas.
Where's the best place to get work around here?
- Yeah. - Don't matter what kind either.
Yeah, well, if I seen one a them things, I seen 10,000 of'em.
- Well, ain't it no good? - Not here. Not now.
There was some pickin' around here about a month ago...
but it's all moved south.
Hey, what part of Oklahoma you from anyhow?
- Sallisaw. - Sallisaw?
Why, I come out from Cherokee County myself about two years ago.