Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma. His father was a cowboy, land speculator, and local politician.
He experienced many losses that profoundly affected him: the death of his older sister Clara, financial and physical ruin, and the institutionalization of his mother. All of this helped form his rambling outlook on life.
He lived through and wrote about the Great Depression and the Great Dust Storm, which hit the Great Plains in 1935. He wrote such Dust Bowl Ballads as "I Ain't Got No Home," "Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad," "Talking Dust Bowl Blues," "Tom Joad" and "Hard Travelin'." He became part of the mass migration of dust bowl refugees known as "Okies." Without food or money, Woody hitchhiked, rode freight trains, and even walked to California, developing a love for traveling on the open road -- a practice he would repeat often.
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