Contents
Chapter 12
Overview
This intercalary chapter maps Highway 66 as the artery of the Dust Bowl exodus, detailing the migrants’ mechanical crises, predatory businesses, and rumors of California’s barriers. Despite fear and scarcity, moments of generosity—like a family towed west by a stranger—reignite faith, underscoring the migrants’ resilience and communal hope.
Summary
The narrative charts Highway 66 from the Mississippi to California, naming towns and terrains to show the migrant road as a national artery. It frames the highway as the mother road for families fleeing dust, tractors, and foreclosures, converging from backroads into a single stream of westward flight.
On the road, overloaded jalopies grind forward while drivers listen anxiously for failing parts. Radiators steam, belts snap, tires thin to fabric, and men gamble scarce cash on makeshift fixes, rope belts, and tire boots. Each mechanical symptom forces hard choices as money, food, and time dwindle.
Encounters with roadside businesses reveal predation: a tire dealer inflates prices and conceals a cracked casing, invoking “sound business” as justification. Travelers trade rumors about California—high wages promised on handbills versus returning migrants’ warnings—and fear stories of border patrols turning the poor back for lacking money or licenses.
Amid scarcity, small family urgencies persist—like a child, Danny, pleading for water as adults ration every drop and mile. Cars blow tubes, heads come off, and families camp to repair what they can, while abandoned wrecks along the shoulder raise questions about those who could not continue.
Despite cruelty and fear, the chapter closes on a luminous anecdote: a family of twelve without a car is towed by a stranger who feeds them, reaching California in two jumps. This act of aid rekindles faith in people, balancing the bitterness of exploitation with the sustaining power of communal generosity.
Who Appears
- Migrant families on Highway 66Refugees fleeing Dust Bowl ruin; nurse failing cars, ration money and water, press toward California.
- Used-tire and roadside businessmenExploit desperate travelers with inflated prices and shoddy goods, calling profiteering “sound business.”
- California border policeReported to turn back destitute migrants lacking licenses or means, fueling fear of exclusion.
- DannyA thirsty child whose repeated pleas symbolize family hardship and scarcity on the road.
- Helpful strangerDriver who tows a family of twelve and feeds them, exemplifying rare but vital generosity.