On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 4:06 PM, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net>wrote:
> At 11:25 AM 10/15/2010, Alan Rudy wrote:
>
> This is not to deny that small farms in CA needed seasonal migrant labor
>> at harvest time, nor is it to deny
>> that large numbers of them existed because of capitalist irrigation
>> schemes,
>> nor that there weren't therefore more capitalistic than plains, midwestern
>> and eastern farms. Its just to be more historical and less hyperbolic.
>>
>
>
> Point taken. But sometimes simplify and exaggerate has its place.
>
> A few years ago I was reading a lot of the New Western History and I'll
> never forget the first time I saw a photo in a book by Patricia Limerick.
> It was of a group of 19th century miners in either California or Colorado,
> posing in front of a huge mound of empty canned goods. They were living for
> months off canned beans and the land to them was something you sucked things
> out of and then moved on. It was a revelation to see that settlement of the
> West was always more carpetbagger than yeoman.
>
> That's why Richard White titled his big overview of the American West "It's
> Your Misfortune and None of my Own." He says that refrain sums up the
> attitude of settlers there very well:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Your_Misfortune_and_None_of_My_Own
>
> As I was walking one morning for pleasure
> I spied a cowpuncher riding along
> His hat was throwed back and his spurs were a-jingling
> And as he approached he was singing this song
>
> Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> It's your misfortune and none of my own
> Whoopie ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> You know that Wyoming will be your new home
>
> Early in the springtime we round up the dogies
> Mark 'em and brand 'em and bob off their tails
> Round up the horses, load up the chuck wagon
> Then throw the little dogies out on the long trail
>
> Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> It's your misfortune and none of my own
> Whoopie ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> You know that Wyoming will be your new home
>
> Night comes on and we hold 'em on the bedground
> The same little dogies that rolled on so slow
> We roll up the herd and cut out the stray ones
> Then roll the little dogies like never before
>
> Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> It's your misfortune and none of my own
> Whoopie ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> You know that Wyoming will be your new home
>
> Some boys go up the long trail for pleasure
> But that's where they get it most awfully wrong
> For you'll never know the trouble they give us
> As we go drivin' them dogies along
>
> Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> It's your misfortune and none of my own
> Whoopie ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> You know that Wyoming will be your new home
>
> Whoopee ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> It's your misfortune and none of my own
> Whoopie ti yi yo, git along little dogies
> You know that Wyoming will be your new home
> You know that Wyoming will be your new home
>
>
>
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>
-- ********************************************************* Alan P. Rudy Dept. Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work Central Michigan University 124 Anspach Hall Mt Pleasant, MI 48858 517-881-6319