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Poor Huck, Poor Jim. I have no clue where the story will lead but excited nonetheless.

In the evening a strange thing happened: the 20 families became 1 family, the children were the children of all. & it might be that a sick child threw despair into the hearts of 20 families, that a birth there in a tent kept people quiet & filled people with the birth-joy in the morning. A family which the night before had been lost and fearful might search its goods to find a present for a new baby.

The cars of the migrant people crawled out of the side roads onto the great cross-country highway, & they took the migrant way to the West. & because they were lonely & perplexed, because they had all come from a place of sadness and worry & defeat, & because they were all going to a new mysterious place, they huddled together; talked together; shared their lives, food, & the things they hoped for in the new country.

“So long,” Tom called. “See ya maybe in California.” They turned across the highway and started back.

The one-eyed man watched them go, and then he went through the iron shed to his shack behind. It was dark inside. He felt his way to the mattress on the floor, and he stretched out and cried in his bed, and the cars whizzing by on the highway only strengthened the walls of his loneliness.

Mae's face was gay when the door opened and the two uniformed truck drivers entered....

"What'll it be, boys?"
"Oh, a cup a Java. What kinda pie ya got?"
"Pineapple cream an' banana cream an' chocolate cream an' apple."
"Give me apple. No, wait, what's that big thick one?"
Mae picked up the pie and smelled it. "Pineapple cream," she said.
"Well, chop out a hunk a that."

The cars whizzed viciously by on 66.

"Why, jus' think how it's gonna be, under them shady trees a pickin' fruit an' takin' a bite ever' once in a while. Why, hell, they don't care how much
you eat 'cause they got so much. An' with them good wages, maybe a fella can get hisself a little piece a land an' work out for extra cash. Why, hell, in a couple years I bet a fella could have a place of his own."

"But Ruthie was older, and she knew the tremendousness of the time. “And goin’ to California,” she said again. And she knew this was the great time in her life so far."

"IN THE LITTLE HOUSES the tenant people sifted their belongings and the belongings of their fathers and of their grandfathers. Picked over their possessions for the journey to the west. The men were ruthless because the past had been spoiled, but the women knew how the past would cry to them in the coming days."

"Jus' let me get out to California where I can pick me an orange when I want it. Or grapes. There's a thing I ain't never had enough of. Gonna get me a whole big bunch of grapes off a bush, or whatever, an' I'm gonna squash 'em on my face an' let 'em run offen my chin."

“Why don't you go on west to California? There's work there, and it never gets cold. Why, you can reach out anywhere and pick an orange. Why, there's always some kind of crop to work in. Why don't you go there?”

20something days left in Michigan.

very excited to see where this story goes as I know very little and as it is very interesting already. Feel I want to take this on as a study, my mind is going a 1000 miles a minute trying to read between the lines. A lot if going on with that turtle, the hermit preacher, Joad (toad). off to read some sparknotes

"Then it was June, and the sun shone more fiercely."

Choose to read this after becoming a fan of Steinbeck but most importantly, since I'll be leaving Michigan and begin driving west, back home to California, at the end of this month, June.

hmmm, slowly, slightly, getting bored...

Tom’s mind was made up, now. He was gloomy & desperate. He was a forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him…what right had the friendless to complain? Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he would lead a life of crime. There was no choice.

But now, this thing had actually and unquestionably failed. Tom's whole structure of faith was shaken to its foundations. He had many a time heard of this thing succeeding but never of its failing before…He puzzled over the matter some time, and finally decided that some witch had interfered and broken the charm!"…"So it WAS a witch that done it. I just knowed it."

But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time. Tom presently began to drift insensibly back into the concerns of his life again. What if he turned his back, now, and disappeared mysteriously? . . . [H]e would join the Indians . . . He would be a pirate! That was it! Now his future lay plain before him, and glowing with unimaginable splendor.

"Like? Why it ain't like anything. You only just tell a boy you won't ever have anybody but him, ever ever ever, and then you kiss and that's all. Anybody can do it."

Ah, how would she feel then? & he pictured himself brought home from the river, dead, with his curls all wet, and his sore heart at rest. How she would throw herself upon him, and how her tears would fall like rain, and her lips pray God to give her back her boy and she would never, never abuse him any more! But he would lie there cold and white and make no sign -- a poor little sufferer, whose griefs were at an end.

Already getting great enjoyment. Laughing out Loud. Such interesting, funny, fascinating, unique storytelling. Reminds me of a Christmas story.

excited and scared to see where lennie and george end up. their dreams <3

Happy to have completed the final installment of Susan Branch's wonderful vibrant diaries. Inspired to take on many new hobbies, recipes, books to read, places to go, people to be equally inspired by. So beyond excited to take on an English Countryside Daydream and visit the places where so many great novels were written.

waiting for this book to be over. ditched reading and listening to the audio book at 2.8. so sick of this girl complaining. completely unbearable.

started this book in '23. emily is annoying and racist, but i need something to read rn and i'm already to far deep to dnf. so let's hope i find it mildly enjoyable at least.

already enjoying this so much. getting chuckles out of me every other page or so. much prefer this setting and plot so far, to the movie.