According to historical fact, in 1931, Roy Rogers was picking peaches and living in the same California migrant worker camps that John Steinbeck stayed in while writing his novel The Grapes of Wrath. And legend has it they were in the same camp at the same time and Steinbeck heard him play and sing guitar at night. 50 years later, in an interview with Christopher Swan of the Christian Science Monitor, Roy vividly remembered those days: “During the depression," he recalls, leaning back in his seat, "I got a job driving a Model-T truck in California, hauling sand and gravel. That was in 1930. In 1931, the guy lost his trucks, and I went up north to pick peaches. Later, I found out I was in the same camp where John Steinbeck wrote 'The Grapes of Wrath.”
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Roy came from Ohio to California dirt poor during the Great Depression, he came from very humble beginnings.
Later, as Roy experienced some success, Roy used to play at swimming pool parties for William Randolph Hearst at San Simeon with the Sons of the Pioneers.
Salute,
Tony V.