Leaving those we love behind as a means to end family struggle

Waving goodbye and wishing luck whether it was friends, family or neighbors because of the times of struggle and their affect on the community.

The excitement of the unknown traveled in the car with every migrant family on their way to California as they wondered whether the tale of a better life was real or too good to be true...

The following passage taken from "On the Dirty Plate Trail : Remembering the Dust Bowl Refugee Camps" explains the fate of these "oakies" full of high hope and praise for a better life in California: "Sanora helped to set up and run government-sponsored camps for the refugees, moving with them as they worked the harvests north along the 'dirty plate' trail of Highway 99, from early winter pea picking in the Imperial Valley to fruit harvests in the San Joaquin Valley, then farther north to the Feather River, finishing with fall cotton picking in Kern County." The individuals such as "Sanora" who aided in the structuring or governing of these "migrant camps" were attempting to control the migration to California, as they knew that the workers, farmers, and families would most likely not find a job nor a place to stay on their own, unless it was the side of the road or under some type of shelter. All of these aspects were shown in The Grapes of Wrath as the beginning of the novel presented characters like that of "casy" relfecting on his emotions on this subject: "Fella gets use' to a place, it's hard to go," said Casy. "Fella gets use' to a way of thinkin' it's hard to leave." The act of packing everything and leaving a town or city that you, your parents, their parents and so on lived in is unimaginable, especially under these conditions.