Glorified Chicken Coops
Fighting way of life for Okie Children of Wasco

Don’t mess with Bill Just as there is a general pecking order in real chicken coops, with the strong picking on the weak, so it was with the human coops.
As the new Okies, the Cole boys started wandering around camp getting to know the place. There was one little group that was sort of a gang, and that group couldn’t help but notice the new kids. The leader of the gang was a little short kid, but Bill could tell by his strut and gestures that he was in charge. After deciding to pick on Bill, the chosen one, Ross, began to box Bill. Instead of boxing, Bill lunged, grabbed Ross by the waist and threw him to the ground. Jumping on top of Ross, Bill began to beat him with his fists. The boy, being about 8 to 10 years old started crying. Bill got off, stood up and looked over at the little short kid, who immediately ran for home as fast as he could go. After that introduction, Bill was never bothered by the gang again.

Lowell learns to fight One day, Kerin was outside playing and the Eskew girls kept flipping Kerin’s dress up. When they wouldn’t stop, she coiled up her fist and hit them. Wallace Eskew saw Kerin hit his sisters, so he jumped up, came over and punched Kerin. Lowell, witnessing the whole event, came over and socked Wallace back. Seeing that Wallace was a lot bigger than him, Lowell started running for home. His daddy had just gotten home and walked in the door when Lowell came racing around the corner of the building. Hub saw Wallace running right behind Lowell, and when Lowell tried to run into the cabin, Hub put out his leg, preventing Lowell from going into the house. “Get out there and fight,” he ordered Lowell. After Wallace and Lowell had been skirmishing for a little while, Hub thought it was enough. He stepped out the door and said, “That’s enough, Wallace.” So Wallace left and Lowell came over to his daddy, still standing in the doorway. Hub told him, “Don’t let me ever see you running from a fight again.” After that, Lowell never did, no matter how big the kid was.

Kerin and the Crawford girls Hub’s rule for his kids was, “I don’t want you to ever start a fight, but if you get in one, you’d better finish it.” Hub’s kids knew that if they didn’t finish it, they would have to answer to him. One family that lived next door to the Coles during those years was the Crawfords. The Crawford girls decided to see how tough Kerin was. So, one day while Kerin was walking around she went into the showers and suddenly found the Crawford girls and their friend standing behind her. As Kerin turned around, one of them said, “We’ve got you cornered and you can’t get out now. We’re going to fight.” Kerin, not having anything against them, said, “I don’t want to fight you.” The oldest girl said, “Oh, yes you are,” and then proceeded to call Kerin all kinds of names — “coward,” “chicken.” As the fists started flying, Kerin’s adrenalin kicked in and she started fighting. One of the girls had some marbles in a sock and began hitting Kerin over the back and head with them. Holding one girl down with one hand, fighting another girl with the other and kicking the third through the shower doors. Kerin was eventually stopped by someone in the crowd that had gathered. “That’s enough, Kerin,” he said. “That’s enough.”

The torn blouse Kerin turned to look at all the men, women, and children crowding around the shower building. Leaving amid stares, Kerin looked down at her blouse where it was ripped across the shoulder. “Oh, no,” she thought as she started crying. “Mama sure is going to give me a whipping.” Kerin had torn too many clothes in her fights and she knew she was in trouble. Iva told her, “If you ever tear anymore of your clothes, I’m going to whip you.” When Kerin got home, Hub was sitting in a chair, looking at her with his dark, piercing blue eyes and smoking a cigarette. Iva was cooking supper. As Kerin fearfully walked in the door, Hub asked in his loud, gruff voice, “You been fighting again?” Someone had already come by and told him. All Kerin could say was, “Yeah.” “Who was it?” Daddy asked. Sheepishly she answered, “Dolores Crawford.” She added, “Yeah, three girls jumped onto me.” “Did you whip ’em?” Hub inquired. Matter-of-factly, Kerin said, “Yeah, I whipped all three of them.” Proudly, Hub replied, “OK, don’t go fight no more.” Kerin was sure happy that she didn’t get a whipping from her Daddy. Going into her room, Kerin took off her blouse and discovered she had big bruises all over her back and head from being hit by the marble-filled sock. At first Iva was angry at Kerin, but then when she found out her daughter had been outnumbered three to one, Iva became angry at the Crawford girls. Not wanting to make trouble with the Crawfords, Iva just said, “Well, stay away from them from now on.

Banding together One of the entertainments the Okie kids in the camp had was at Mill’s Skating Rink. One weekend a big bunch of kids from camp were all skating at the rink and about six kids from Shafter came in to skate. Kerin was skating around when a seemingly big-breasted girl from Shafter wearing a tight black turtleneck sweater got jealous of Kerin. As Kerin skated over to the rail and stopped, the big-breasted girl jumped up and started boxing at Kerin. As Kerin put up her fists to fight, her skate slipped back, swinging her body around and making her fist jab upward, accidentally hitting the girl’s breast. Suddenly the large bump that had been on the girl’s chest was now relocated to the top of her shoulder. Screaming as if she was hurt, the Shafter girl swung her arms up trying to cover the now flat place on her chest and the extra hump on her shoulder while running to the bathroom. In an instant, one of the boys from Shafter jumped up, wanting to fight Kerin. Lowell, seeing the commotion, practically flew over on his skates to where Kerin was. As Lowell zoomed up behind Kerin, he asked, “You having trouble, Kerin?” At that, another boy from Shafter jumped up,. Kerin replied, “Yeah, these kids want to fight me.” After she said that, Bill sped up beside Kerin and Lowell and said, “Lowell, you having problems here?” Then a third Shafter boy jumped up. “Yeah, we’re gonna fight!” he said. Immediately all the Okie kids from the labor camp came rolling over to stand behind the Cole kids. As soon as they had all gathered around, someone in the camp bunch said, “You wanna fight?” Looking at the whole crowd, the Shafter kids all said, “No, we don’t want to fight the whole bunch of you.” At that time the manager, Roy Mills, came over and said, “If you kids are going to fight, go outside.” So the Shafter kids turned around and left with all the camp kids following them. As soon as the Shafter kids got outside, they quickly got in their car and left town. The camp kids were like family, they fought among themselves, but they were also loyal to one another, standing up against anyone who would dare to threaten one of their own.