Voices from the Dust Bowl

MIGRANT WORKERS’ SONGS IN CALIFORNIA
by Charles Todd and Robert Sonkin

Todd-Sonkin 1940 Fieldnotes
Shafter FSA Camp 8/4/40

FSA Shafter Camp

Back in the ironing room. Went down to Mrs. Sullivan’s tent to call for her. Found her daughters busy arranging her hair.

Mrs. Mary Sullivan comes from near Warm Springs, Texas. She has been in California for three years. She is one of the recreation leaders in the camp (i.e., WPA), in change of arts and crafts. Last year she went up to Bakersfield once a week to attend classes in arts and crafts. Mrs. Sullivan is one of the few Okie women we saw who look younger than they really are. She is the mother of a very large family, but her figure is neat, and has generally youthful appearance.

LLOYD BATEMAN [5:05 mp3]. Sung by Mrs. Mary Sullivan. Mrs. S. sings this song with great emotion. It was this song that her daughters had told us about, and had indicated they considered one of her best songs. At several points in the song she almost broke down, sniffing audibly. Her daughters giggled at this, but not, we felt, irreverently; rather thru a kind of embarrassment (cf. the youngster with the broken arm at Arvin: it was the idea of his mother making a kind of spectacle of herself that troubled him). The other members of the audience standing around as we worked were deeply moved by the song.

Conclusion of LLOYD BATEMAN [2:41 mp3]. Mrs. Sullivan thinks of her songs as complete things, and she was disappointed that there had not been room on one side of the record to catch the whole song. In general we found that these folk-singers like to finish a song once they have started it. Mrs. Sullivan’s style of singing we thought of as singularly pure: she uses occasionally little slides and breaks in the voice which add to the pathos of the song. These breaks are not to be thought of as occurring haphazardly, but are to be considered part of the tune; for, whenever Mrs. S. repeats these tunes, or sings the same stanzas again, the breaks occur in almost exactly the same places. All of Mrs. Sullivan’s songs were learned when she was quite small.

Merle Lovell. Handsome, middle twenties; rather hysterical laugh. As soon as he came itno the room he squatted down with his back to the wall and, a borrowed guitar in his hands, began improvising. Squatted down beside him: We have found that squatting with these people helps to build up their trust in us! Lovell was in a bad way, still half asleep he informed us after a big night (Sat.). (Comes from East Oklahoma)

Todd/Sonkin recording expenses

Merle Lovell: I RODE SOUTHERN? I RODE L. M. [3:04 mp3] Learned this song from a record of Homer Cowhand (?).

SHORTIE ALLEN. — (First name: Vernon?) Small man, (Hope, Ark…Left in 1934 — back twice for visits) indeterminate age, small, red-lidded eyes almost always half shut, upper front teeth capped with a kind of tarnished silver metal. One of the camp characters. Known as a teller of tall tales. “He’s told those stories so long, he’s come to believe them himself.” Sometimes gets mad if people don’t believe him, according to the others. This record is a medley of three of the stories he is proudest of. At least the first of these (rattlesnake-whiskey — frog story) we recognized as not being original. (Learned from the radio?!) But Shortie always told them with gusto, and they were thoroughly appreciated by the men around. Shortie apparently is content to play the clown for the others. Nothing like that about his wife, who at the council meeting went to bat for her unit’s washing machine with so much energy and intelligence ["Shady Grove" 2:34 mp3].

SQUARE DANCE ["Sally Goodin" 3:51 mp3]. Caller, Walker King; Fiddle, Willard Brewer; guitar, Red Harmon.

Dance with calls (“Figure 8″). Some of the calls:

Round up 8 and go circle south
Everybody wind
Rt. left the old left hand
Go rt. away around.

Watch you partner watch her close
When you meet her go double(dosie?) dos.
Once and a half and the other half too…

Original composition “ALL ABOUT THE CAMP” [2:31 mp3] by Mrs. Pond, read by her son L. D. Westfall. Text had appeared in the camp paper. Mrs. Pond didn’t want to read it, because it was supposed to be spoken by a man. Got her son to do it, who did not do an especially good job of it. As he read, Mrs. Pond, who apparently knows her compositions by heart moved her lips, saying the words to herself. She gave him instructions about reading it, too: the mosquitoes are supposed to say “cuzzen”, with a very buzzing onomotopoetic effect. Got this recording after the council meeting had adjourned.

Shorty Allen with a song he had studied up for us: MADAM I HAVE A VERY FINE FARM [1:44 mp3].

In the Davis house. Metal shelter #14, Present: Mr.and Mrs. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, Mrs. Robertson, etc., etc. About a dozen children. Many outside.

Conversation, leading up to:

Toward Los Angeles, California. 1937;
Photographer: Dorothea Lange

A TRAVELER’S LINE [1:55 mp3]. An original song about the camp sung by Mrs. Mary Sullivan. (From near Warm Springs, Texas; here 3 years). Fluctuations in volume may appear a/c her rocking back and forth in chair. Freight train appears at end of record. Had no title, but after thinking, Mrs, S. wrote out title above.

Conversation in O.C. Davis’ shelter:

…Chitterlin’s meat after the grease is rendered out.

…I beg your pardon. That ain’t right. Chitterlin’ is a hog or beef’s entrail.

…That’s what it is.

This leads into Merle Lovell’s songs: DISAPPOINTED IN LOVE — followed by WHEN IT’S
CHITTERLIN’-COOKIN’ TIME IN CHEATHAM COUNTY[2:38 mp3].

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