Nostalgia & History > "Okies" on the railroad...

I'm reading an excellent book about the migration of "southwesterners" to California during the 1930's. The title
of the book is "American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and
Okie Culture in California" by James Gregory. For anybody remotely interested in California history (and population demographics) or for anybody with relatives who came out to California from Oklahoma, Missouri, Texas, Kansas or Arkansas
during the 1920, '30's and 1940's this is a must read. My mom migrated with her mother and two sisters to Wasco,CA from Missouri in 1936; needless to say the book is of great interest to me.

One of the things that really caught my attention was on page 46. A reference was made to one gentleman from Missouri who was able to get a job with the SP at Colton (within a month or arriving in Southern California) with the help of an uncle and cousin already working there. He estimated that at that time
3/4 of the shop workers at Colton were "southwesterners".

I have no facts to back this up, however I've heard that in the 1940's through the late 1960's about half the SP employees in Bakersfield were "Okies" or "Arkies, while the Santa Fe had an even greater percentage (very interesting considering that
"southwesterners" were increasingly unwelcome in Bakersfield and the surounding area during the late 1930's).

It would seem that "southwesterners" played a larger than realized role in rail transportation in California. I'm curious to know if anybody out there had friends or relatives that fit into this catagory...

Additions and comments welcome!


AM

Since these fine folks (including my wife) contributed so much to Kern and other Valley counties in those days - and still do - I'm sure they also played key roles in the railroad industry. Sadly, they weren't treated very well when they arrived.

In the mid 1930's, my dad, mom, and older sister ( this was before I was born ) left Oklahoma City on the promise of a job with the SP in California. Dad had previously written out letters of inquiry as to job possibilities to railroads all over the country. He had previously been a boomer telegrapher before he married in 1933 and wanted to settle down. The only positive response he got was from the SP in San Francisco. They told him to report for processing and etc. within a month in San Francisco. When he was going through Denver on the way westward in a Model A Ford, he noticed the Rio Grande, and told my mother that he'd neglected to write to the Rio Grande, but since they were closer to their homes and families in Oklahoma and Texas, he wanted to stop and try to get on with the Rio Grande. He did and the Rio Grande gave him all the required tests, which he passed, so they told him to report within two weeks, and ready to go to work, which he did. And the rest is history as has they say. Dad was a career op/telegrapher/agent on the Rio Grande until he died in late 1963.

H.C. Sweet Jr.