Sunday, November 15, 2009

Happy Days Are Here Again

Good news, folks, that turkey dinner with all the trimmings is a couple bucks cheaper this year and just when I thought everything was looking so bleak. I'm starting to feel better already.

Things aren't so bad after all. There's still enough in my 401K to put a down payment on a little single wide Fleetwood in Yuma. It may not be the retirement home we've always wanted but what the fuck. You gotta look on the bright side. It's closer to the beach than Las Cruces. I hear the WalMart Super Center there is a Duesey. They got work there too. Fetching carts in from the parking lot. Says so right on this flyer I got. We're in Hog Heaven.

Get Rose o' Sharon and the boys together Ma! We're a gonna load up the truck and head out East on 66 for that Promised Land. If only they'd let Tom out'a prison. Then all us Joads could be together again.

2 comments:

reddog said...

I spent a lot of my early childhood in South Modesto. Some called it Crow's Landing. It was where the Bulls stopped the freights before going across the river into the town proper and beat the Hobos off the trains in the '30s.

A Hooverville sprung up that became permanent. Tar paper shacks with unglazed windows, blankets strung across doorways. No utilities, outhouses, a few common use stand pipes scattered around supplied water.

It was just down river from a big slaughterhouse/feedlot operation. You had to make sure to keep your mouth closed if you went in swimming. Good fishing though, fat channel cats and carp.

I'm here to tell you. A little child could play in the streets at any hour in perfect safety and get fed at almost any table in the neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

Growing up on the farm was fun. We had a garden, planted sweet corn, raised chickens and slaughtered hogs and a steer once in a while. Even had a vineyard.

The nearest neighbor was a half mile away.

Those days are gone, regrettably.

beebs