The ghosts of Tom Joad

Homeless, Springfield, Mo

Below the new and idyllic Route 66 Roadside Park in Springfield, Missouri, a campground for the homeless has sprung up in recent months.

KYTV in Springfield talked to Heather Cooper, one of the homeless there:

“I have post traumatic stress disorder with traumatic nightmares. I’ve got stage one bipolar, stage one manic depressive illness, which is like a bipolar and depressive mixed.”

Heather’s not alone. Many of her fellow homeless friends, she added, are grappling with mental health issues. […]

If or when the campers are issued a notice to vacate, the city will alert homeless agencies and advocates who provide services to people in need.

The services, said Cooper, should start with more shelters and mental health help.

“We’re a little more needy than other people. But it’s a slow process to get your head right,” she said. “We all don’t plan to be out here forever.”

The camp is on city and railroad land.

The station also talked to a concerned resident who lives near the camp. I expected a sort of “get off my land” response, but his response was more nuanced.

“You want to be mad; you want to be sad. You want to be the whole gamut of emotions because you don’t know what to do.”

I’m certain many Springfield officials and residents are horrified or dismayed a few homeless people set up a camp below a spot where they hope to draw tourists. They’re probably hoping visitors don’t see them or the homeless quietly go away.

But in addition to its familiar nostalgia, tales of destitution are part of Route 66’s history. John Steinbeck’s 1939 book, “The Grapes of Wrath,” was fiction. But the hardships, squalor and despair endured by Tom Joad and his family on “the Mother Road” were all too recognizable to those who experienced the Great Depression.

The headline on this story also is inspired a Bruce Springsteen song, “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” which didn’t attract much notice when it was released in 1995 but has become a staple of his shows.

Homeless people always have been around (the term “Skid Row” and its variations date back at least 300 years). But the number of homeless people in America exploded during the 1980s because of cuts to affordable-housing programs and mental-health institutions. As one who experienced that era, it’s my opinion homelessness remains a big black eye to “trickle-down economics” policy.

I’m not saying Springfield shouldn’t pay tribute to its Route 66 heritage. But, like anything that examines history, it should tell the good and the bad of the past — and the present.

UPDATE: KSPR-TV in Springfield reported Thursday night the homeless have been given 48 hours to vacate the camp.

(Image of a homeless campground in Springfield, Missouri, by myboogers via Flickr)

One thought on “The ghosts of Tom Joad

  1. The explosion in homeless people in America has nothing to do with so-called trickle down economics. It has to do with a Democratic president named Jimmy Carter, who decided that most mental hospitals were horrific places, so his administration proceeded to shut many of them down. With no place to go, many former institutionalized people were forced out into the streets to fend for themselves. This policy started the late 70s, not the 80s, however, the effects became much more visible in the 80s.

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