Chapter 15
The hamburger stand on 66
Summary
An intercalary chapter set in a hamburger stand on 66, seen through Mae behind the counter and Al moody at the griddle. Rich tourists stop, drink a nickel soda, complain and leave; Mae calls them shitheels. Truck drivers are the trade that matters. Two of them report a wreck: a Cadillac doing ninety cut in on a migrant truck and killed a child. Then a Nash pulls in and a man asks for water, and to buy ten cents' worth of a fifteen-cent loaf because a dime has to feed the family the whole way. Al snarls at Mae to give them the bread; she sells it for ten cents, and when the man's two boys stare at the candy case she tells him the nickel peppermint sticks are two for a penny. The truck drivers see it, say nothing, and leave two half-dollars for a fifteen-cent bill, telling Mae to go to hell when she calls after them.
Plates
Illustration style
Composition
Written: 14 July 1938 to 15 July 1938 Journal entries: #36, #37 Dating: from DeMott's editorial markers in Working Days
From the journal
14 July 1938, Thursday, 12:15 — Entry #36
[…] Nice people. Too many things are happening. No word from the east [Ed.—from Pat Covici, or from McIntosh and Otis]. News printed my letters* and I imagine the reaction will be immediate. Now to work god damn it and different work. Must get to it. Finished it [Ed.—beginning of Chapter 15]. By God and for a while I didn’t think […]
15 July 1938, Friday, 11:15 — Entry #37
[…] the 35th day. In other words, in 16 more days I’ll be half through. And I must get my people to California before then. By the first of August they should be there, come what may. I think all of today will be in the hamburger stand [Ed.—Chapter 15]. That is an important place. Carol going to San Jose today. […]
Source: Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938–1941, ed. Robert DeMott (Viking, 1989).