Okies

ethnic group in the United States; originally a usually disparaging slang term, referring to an Oklahoman

The Okies were economic migrants from Oklahoma who traveled to California en masse in the Great Depression.

Quotes

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  • "A car with three mattresses strapped to its roof meant a family of rich Okies; two mattresses meant mediocre wealth; and a lone mattress meant the Okies inside were dirt poor."
  • Kansas folklore, as quoted by Michael Wallis in Route 66: The Mother Road (1990).