Songs

This item is a recording of Robert Sonkin singing a song called "The Old Apple Tree In The Orchard." It's a sad song with a happy tune that narrates the singer's dad caring so much for an apple tree in his yard that ends up being one of the main components of his death. In the beginning of the song, the singer sings about how "handsome, young, and happy" his father is when he first planted the tree. However, the chorus prefaces the fact that the dad would be "sorry that he growed it." Later in the song, the father ends up being hung by the neighbors on the tree then is buried under the tree. This song is a metaphor for the Dust Bowl, and how the farmers would spend all of their time and effort in farming to keep them alive, only to have the same natural forces lead them away from their normal lives.

Lyrics:
Oh! The old apple tree in the orchard
Lives in my memory
'Cause it reminds me of my Pappy
He was handsome, young and happy
When he planted the old apple tree

Say "Goodbye", say "Goodbye"
Say "Goodbye" to the old apple tree
If my Pappy had a knowed it
He'd be sorry that he growed it
'Cause he died on the old apple tree

Then one day Pappy took Widder Norton
Out on a jamboree
And when he took her home at sun-up
Brother Norton raised his gun up
And chased Pappy up in the tree

Say "Goodbye", say "Goodbye"
Say "Goodbye" to the old apple tree
If my Pappy had a knowed it
He'd be sorry that he growed it
'Cause he died on the old apple tree

When the neighbors came after my Pappy
Up in the tree was he
The neighbors took a rope and strung him
By the neck and then they hung him
To a branch of the old apple tree

Say "Goodbye", say "Goodbye"
Say "Goodbye" to the old apple tree
If my Pappy had a knowed it
He'd be sorry that he growed it
'Cause he died on the old apple tree

Now my poor Pappy lies in the orchard
Out of his misery
They put the apples in the basket
Chopped the tree down for a casket
And my poor Pappy's gone with the tree

Say "Goodbye", say "Goodbye"
Say "Goodbye" to the old apple tree
If my Pappy had'a knowed it
He'd be sorry that he growed it
'Cause he died on the old apple tree

"Dreamboat" is a song performed by Mary Helen Bolton. She lived in a migrant camp, where she learned this song. It's essentially about the singer dreaming and wainting for their love to come home. This could also be used as a metaphor for waiting in a migrant camp to go home.

Lyrics:

"When my dreamboat comes home

In my dreams no more will roam

I will meet you and greet you

Hold you closer my home

And its waters will sing

Of the tender love you bring

We'll be sweethearts forever

When my dreamboat comes home"

This is an audio recording of Lois Judd performing "Little Mohee," a song she learned around 20 years ago in Kentucky. This song is about the singer walking one day and coming across someone new, even though they already have someone they love. The singer apologizes to this new "fair maiden," because they have a true love at home who has a pure heart like Little Mohee. This could be used as a metaphor for traveling, where no matter how much potential one place has, home always is the one place people will always go back to.

"A Traveler's Line" is a song performed by Mary Sullivan. It's about different migrant experiences, typically of travelling with family, running away from hunger, and trying to find work. The end of the song talks about being trapped in the farm worker's town, where they had to borrow money and are now struggling to pay it back. For a minute there, their problems of hunger seemed to go away, but only temporarily.

Lyrics:

As I was walking this morning

I spied a man old and gray

A story to shared with someone

So these words to me, he did say

For two long years now I have wondered

Away from loved ones at home

It seems that starvation has owned us

And that we decided to roam

At first we camped out on the prairies

Then state to state we did try

To find work on the farm provisions

But it seemed like there was no used to try

I finally wound up in a shelter

In a camp by the way

A man walked up and told me

"You can sign for a grant check today"

Then groceries brought in by the arms

The children no longer did sigh

The campsite such a nice place to live in

The manager so nice

So now you all hear my sad story

And how we first ventured out

The welfare will ___ all your family

When you stop in a farm worker's town