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Growing up in the 1950s, author Gerald Haslam developed what he called a perverse pride in a taunt hurled at the people of his hardscrabble Central Valley town: Oildale Okies.
The Kern County community was known for its Dust Bowl migrants, people looked down upon by other Californians who labeled them and their neighbors dirty and poor. The air smelled of crude oil. The heat seared. The dust devils danced in the ever-present wind.
By Haslam’s account, Oildale was characterized by “a combination of conviviality and bigotry.” But for the most part, people looked out fo\r each other, worked hard, and, above all else, told good stories. His hometown, he wrote, “had plenty of warts, yet I loved it.” ....

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