The Family

Joad Family Livin'

Firstly and most importantly, in order to know me it is of the utmost importance that you understand my family and our trials and tribulations that have brought us on the road. 

Yup, that's the most of us. My boys Al, Tom, and Noah, my girl Rose of Sharon, who is currently with child, and her beau Connie, their Pa, as well as my Pa. I'm not sure where Granma is at the moment, probably trying to pack up all the unnecessary shenanigans that we ended up leaving behind. 

The family is everything, and it's times like these where us folks really need to stick together. 'Specially now that Tom's home, Lord I couldn't believe my eyes when he walked through the kitchen door. Don't get me wrong, I love all my children equally, but it just ain't been the same since Tom left. 

So we plan on sticking together, right? A family of twelve plus one preacher (who is not pictured and I haven't mentioned yet. Jim Casy is a sorta odd preacher, but a preacher all the same and we're glad to take him along for the ride) on the lonely road stretching from Oklahoma all the way to California. California--so far away that it was nothing but a dream.

As we got closer to the supposed dream, well, that be when reality started to hit. Granpa wasn't strong enough to leave the land, and passed to a better life soon as we left Oklahoma. Granma was gone shortly after, and well, that a really dark time for me. I didn't know what to think or what to do, if all of this loss was worth it. 

However, I knew that we had to keep a moving forward. It got awfully lonely sometimes. While we had family, we didn't have no civilization to interact with. And, well, lots of us didn't want to take it no more. Connie fled, leaving Rose of Sharon alone with her unborn child (the bum), Noah, sought an alternate route down the river. It seemed like the harder I clung on, the more everything fell apart.

I  guess you just gotta learn to be grateful for what you have and not dwell on what you don't.