"The Mother Who Pulled Her 5 Kids in a Wagon From Oklahoma to California After the Dust Bowl Killed Her Husband, 1936"
"June 1936. Cimarron County, Oklahoma. Dust Bowl.
Husband: Paul Briggs died of dust pneumonia. Farm gone. Bank took it.
Left: Lila Briggs, 34. Kids: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4.
Relief office said: “We got work in California. You got a way there?”
She had a Radio Flyer wagon. That’s it.
She sold the stove for $3. Bought flour and beans.
June 10: She started walking Route 66. 1,500 miles.
Put the 4 and 6-year-old in the wagon. 8-year-old pushed. 10 and 12-year-old walked. Lila pulled.
June – September: 90 days.
Arizona desert, 115°F. She soaked their shirts in her urine when water ran out. Kept them wet.
Blisters turned to calluses. Then calluses split. She wrapped her feet in rags.
Made Bakersfield September 8.
Picking camp boss saw her. Gave her a tent. Gave the kids milk.
All 5 lived. All 5 graduated high school.
Lila died 1971. Kept the wagon. It’s in the Kern County Museum. Sign says: “She Pulled Us Here.”
""1936 Dust Bowl. Husband dead, farm gone. Mother, 34, pulls 5 kids 1,500 miles to California in Radio Flyer wagon. 90 days. Arizona desert 115°. Soaks shirts in urine to cool kids. All 5 live, graduate. Wagon in museum: 'She Pulled Us Here.'""
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