great historical bum
"Woody! Where ya headin'? Amarilla? Hustlin' signs?"
"Cal'fornia," I said. "Hustlin' outta this dam dust!"
"Fer piece down th' road, ain't it?"
"Enda this dam highway! Ain't a-lookin' back!"
Bound for Glory (page 191)
During the Dust Bowl, many Americans headed west hoping to find better living conditions. Desperate for a new beginning, Woody Guthrie set out from his home in Oklahoma on the road to Texas and then California. What he found was some hard travelin.'
"This was a strange town, with a funny feeling hanging it, a feeling like their were lots of people in it-- the Mexican workers, and the white workers, and the travelers of all skins and colors of eyes, caught hungry, hunting for some kind of work to do. I was too proud to go out like the other men and knock at the doors." (page 201)
I been hittin' some hard travelin'
"I kept getting weaker and emptier. I got so nervous that I commenced shaking, and couldn't hold myself still. I could smell a piece of bacon or corncake frying at a half a mile away."
Bound for Glory (page 201)