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dennishoddy

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I was listening to the radio the other day; a Vince Gill song came on and a couple lines got me thinking.

Oh my mama tried to warn me he's done time in California
But he'll be an Okie til his dyin' day


There's some kind of Oklahoma-California connection that goes back a long time that I don't fully understand.
My grandparents moved to CA for work in the 50's then back to OK in the 60's. I've heard many other examples of OK to CA moves and CA to OK moves.
What is the connection?

The dust bowl days in Ok forced Oklahomans to move west, finally settling in Ca.
They were treated like trailer trash, no better than foreign migrant workers that came from south of the border. Signs put on roads to keep out.
The slur word to describe those from Ok was okies. A term we embrace now.
Way too much more info to post in this thread from my phone. It would be to your advantage to research the dust bowl days and why they left, then finally returned.
The shelter belts of trees in NW Ok that still exist are a direct result of those dust bowl days.
 

Aries

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I have always been fascinated by how what was originally intended as a derogatory term somehow became such a common description. Rather than being insulted, most of us PROUDLY claim to be "okies". Even if someone intentionally refers to us as "okies", we don't take it negatively, our response is more like, "Yeah... is that supposed to be bad?" The same as if someone tried to call us "human".

Is it that we took a derogatory term and flipped it on it's head in order to take the sting out? Sort of like self-deprecating humor? You can't hurt me by calling me an okie... I will call MYSELF an okie...

Or are we just not smart enough to know when we are being insulted? :rollingla
 

TerryMiller

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I've stated this before, but I'll take time to do it again.

Cimarron County is where I grew up. It was also the epicenter of the Dust Bowl. At the time of the Dust Bowl, there was also the Depression, so folks from both Oklahoma and Arkansas headed to other places. I grew up as the offspring of some of those that endured the above and have since determined that those people were people of great courage.

They either had to courage to pack up a car with belongings and move somewhere with no guarantee of a job, or they stayed in Oklahoma with the courage to live here the best they could. I even had family members that did each of the above. One set of grandparents went to California and another set stayed in Cimarron County.

The story is that Keyes, OK (my home town) was built on land that my paternal grandfather owned. (Now, whether that story is true or not is undetermined, but considering who told me, I have to believe it.)
 

MacFromOK

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I have always been fascinated by how what was originally intended as a derogatory term somehow became such a common description. Rather than being insulted, most of us PROUDLY claim to be "okies". Even if someone intentionally refers to us as "okies", we don't take it negatively, our response is more like, "Yeah... is that supposed to be bad?" The same as if someone tried to call us "human".

Is it that we took a derogatory term and flipped it on it's head in order to take the sting out? Sort of like self-deprecating humor? You can't hurt me by calling me an okie... I will call MYSELF an okie...

Or are we just not smart enough to know when we are being insulted? :rollingla
Reminds me of a guy that introduced himself to the bartender as "Tex."

Bartender said, "So, you must be from Texas."

Tex said, "Nope, I'm from Louisiana."

Puzzled, the bartender asked, "Then why do folks call you Tex?"

Tex replied, "Because I ain't gonna let nobody call me Louise."
:drunk2:
 

EKing

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The dust bowl days in Ok forced Oklahomans to move west, finally settling in Ca.
.....It would be to your advantage to research the dust bowl days and why they left, then finally returned.

They either had to courage to pack up a car with belongings and move somewhere with no guarantee of a job, or they stayed in Oklahoma with the courage to live here the best they could. I even had family members that did each of the above. One set of grandparents went to California and another set stayed in Cimarron County.

Good stuff, thanks.
I think I've got the early OK to CA history. Dust Bowl, Great Depression, jobs, beaches, etc.
What I don't understand is why they came back! Cheap land? (This is my research, asking the folks here):D
All the beautiful country between here and California, why, if they could stop anywhere along the way and make a life, would they keep going and then stop in Oklahoma?
 

TwoForFlinching

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Reminds me of a guy that introduced himself to the bartender as "Tex."

Bartender said, "So, you must be from Texas."

Tex said, "Nope, I'm from Louisiana."

Puzzled, the bartender asked, "Then why do folks call you Tex?"

Tex replied, "Because I ain't gonna let nobody call me Louise."
:drunk2:

I'd tell you what native louisianians call ourselves, but I'd probably catch a mark for foul language lol.
 

TerryMiller

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Good stuff, thanks.
I think I've got the early OK to CA history. Dust Bowl, Great Depression, jobs, beaches, etc.
What I don't understand is why they came back! Cheap land? (This is my research, asking the folks here):D
All the beautiful country between here and California, why, if they could stop anywhere along the way and make a life, would they keep going and then stop in Oklahoma?

I can't answer for all people who went elsewhere and then returned, but in my maternal grandparent's case, they had homesteaded on land in Cimarron County and retained ownership of that land. So, he returned to work the land and raise some cattle.

I suspect many others returned because of family being still in Oklahoma.
 

Parks 788

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The dust bowl days in Ok forced Oklahomans to move west, finally settling in Ca.
They were treated like trailer trash, no better than foreign migrant workers that came from south of the border. Signs put on roads to keep out.
The slur word to describe those from Ok was okies. A term we embrace now.
Way too much more info to post in this thread from my phone. It would be to your advantage to research the dust bowl days and why they left, then finally returned.
The shelter belts of trees in NW Ok that still exist are a direct result of those dust bowl days.

Many Okies when they left the dust bowl and moved to CA they settled in the central valley area. This is from Bakersfield to Stockton area. That is really not a very nice area considering what other parts of CA has to offer. I would have moved the hell out of there too.
 

dennishoddy

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Many Okies when they left the dust bowl and moved to CA they settled in the central valley area. This is from Bakersfield to Stockton area. That is really not a very nice area considering what other parts of CA has to offer. I would have moved the hell out of there too.
They were farmers and ranchers. Moved there for the work they understood from what I read.
 

dennishoddy

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I've stated this before, but I'll take time to do it again.

Cimarron County is where I grew up. It was also the epicenter of the Dust Bowl. At the time of the Dust Bowl, there was also the Depression, so folks from both Oklahoma and Arkansas headed to other places. I grew up as the offspring of some of those that endured the above and have since determined that those people were people of great courage.

They either had to courage to pack up a car with belongings and move somewhere with no guarantee of a job, or they stayed in Oklahoma with the courage to live here the best they could. I even had family members that did each of the above. One set of grandparents went to California and another set stayed in Cimarron County.

The story is that Keyes, OK (my home town) was built on land that my paternal grandfather owned. (Now, whether that story is true or not is undetermined, but considering who told me, I have to believe it.)
My great grandparents on my moms side moved to the Seattle Washington area during the dust bowl days to work in the apple orchards there as well as the fishing industry finally moving back to the Newkirk area where they had land. My grandparents on the same side moved back to that area during WWII to work in the aircraft industry to support the war, again moving back to the Newkirk area to run the farm.

abandoned-equipment.jpg


family-walking-through-storm.jpg


dusty-landscape.jpg
 

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