When we left Oklahoma City, I was ten years old. We left in August. My mother wanted to get out of Oklahoma. The dust bowl was happening during this time, but it was far to the north of us; we weren’t affected.

Earl played the guitar, Ray played the violin, and Fats played the banjo. Then, there was my mother, my sister Muriel, me, plus my half brother and half sister. All of us crammed into an Overland touring car. It was big, and it had a trailer. Some of us wrote in the car, and some of us rode in the trailer.

When we started out, my mother was unhappy with my stepfather because I think he had a girlfriend. We got as far as the Pecos River in Texas where the boys got a job picking cotton. We had a small lean-to for shelter. In the walls of this shelter was a beehive.

Of course we didn’t have much money during this time, and we had to buy food. So the boys smoked out the bees, and we got the honey.


While Brothers Played, I Danced the Charleston

Another idea the boys came up with was getting the band together and playing for a dance. There was a little store near the camp where we were staying. My brothers told me that if I would dance the Charleston, he would get me anything in the store that I wanted.

I had learned the Charleston from Thelma. So while the boys played, I danced the Charleston.

Then my brother asked me what I wanted from the store. I told him I wanted the little half – slippers.

He asked me: “why did you take those?”

I said: “because I never had any before!”