Treasures in the Dust — Tracey Porter

Octobertime, 1938
near Holbrook, Arizona

Dear Annie,
We've been driving Route 66 ever since we hit Amarillo. Oklahoma folks call it the Mother Road because so many of us are traveling it, searching for a better life. It's a long road. Pa says it take us past Hollywood and straight to the Ocean if we follow it to the end....

Somewhere, miles beyond, are fields for us to work. When the weather's fine, I perch up on the pile of mattresses and watch everything we pass. Sometimes I think about what we've left behind. Sometimes I think about California, dreaming about the white house we'll live in and the dancing and acting lessons I'll take....