Woody Guthrie-hillbilly, hobo, Dust Bowl balladeer-no doubt surprised an interviewer when he revealed in 1940 that he wasn't born into "the class that John Steinbeck called the Okies." Guthrie's father, Charley, had been a district court clerk in Oklahoma's first elected government and thrived as a real-estate prospector in the prairie town of Okemah. "But then he started having a little bad luck," Guthrie said. "In fact, my whole family had a little bit of it." The six-room house the Guthries built in 1909 burned to the ground the same month they moved in. In 1920, someone struck oil near Okemah and a stampede of fast-talking real-estate moguls trampled Charley Guthrie's small-time operation. And on April 14, 1935, the drought and dust that had already destroyed 35 million acres of American farmland swept the Texas Panhandle, where the Guthries had relocated.
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