Guitars are a gracious thing.

[Proclaimer888]

An amazing quote from Grapes of Wrath

"And perhaps a man brought out his guitar to the front of his tent. And he sat on a box to play, and everyone in the camp moved slowly in toward him, drawn in toward him. Many men can chord a guitar, but perhaps this man was a picker. There you have something, the deep chords beating, beating, while the melody runs on the strings like little footsteps. Heavy hard fingers marching on the frets. The man played and the people moved slowly in on him until the circle was closed and tight, and then he sang, "Ten-Cent Cotton and Forty-Cent Meat." And the circle sang softly with him. And he sang "Why Do You Cut Your Hair, Girls?" And the circle sang. He wailed the song, "I'm Leaving Old Texas," that eerie song that was sung before the Spaniards came, only the words were Indian then.

And now the group was welded to one thing, one unit, so that in the dark the eyes of the people were inward, and their minds played in other times, and their sadness was like rest, like sleep. He sang the "McAlester Blues" and then, to make up for it to the older people, he sang "Jesus Calls Me to His Side." The children drowsed with the music and went into the tents to sleep, and the singing came into their dreams.

And after a while the man with the guitar stood up and yawned. Good night, folks, he said.

And they murmured, Good night to you.

And each wished he could pick a guitar, because it is a gracious thing."

[donlyn]

Guitars are a gracious thing.

Thank you for a lovely and very apt quote.

Reading is my second-favorite hobby.

Be well and keep reading,

Don
.

[catndahats]

Thanks, and a beautiful story.

[redcrow]

What moving quote. John Steinbeck lived what he wrote and it shows.

[abn556]

Steinbeck certainly had a great style to his writing. When I was a kid reading his books I was struck by the characters in East of Eden. The book - not the movie.

[jjbigfly]

Exactly……nice find.

[Slothead56]

I’ve been playing for 50 years and am sometimes still amazed I can do this. Count myself fortunate to be among the lucky few that learned to play, can play and still play. It’s a magnificently wonderful instrument.

[Guitars44me]

Lovely writing by JS

Everyone make beautiful music and spread Joy

Paul

[Bob from Brooklyn]

It's a gift to be shared.

[BlueBowman]

Very nice. I'm always game for a literary quote, all the better when involving the guitar. Thanks for sharing

[Rev Roy]

Very cool. Makes me want to go back and read “Grapes of Wrath” again. Thanks for sharing.

[Myopic Squirrel]

The epitome of word pictures!

[Wade Hampton]

I went on a John Steinbeck binge when I was in 8th Grade, reading most of his books not because they were assigned in class, but for my own pleasure. Later, in high school we were assigned to read Of Mice And Men and a couple of years after that, The Grapes Of Wrath, I’d already read and enjoyed both of them.

I think The Grapes Of Wrath is my all-time favorite Steinbeck novel. It’s so monumental.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Glennwillow]

Thanks for the reminder of John Steinbeck's writing in The Grapes of Wrath. I, too, went through a period in my younger years of reading through all of John Steinbeck's books.

A guitar is a gracious thing, especially if the guitar player is gracious.

My son-in-law told me a story a while ago about their family bedded down for the night in a campsite when somebody drove in rather late at night, pulls out his guitar, and started wailing away on Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" without any concern for those already retired for the night. In that case, the player was, perhaps, rather insensitive to others in the camp and was probably something less than gracious.

- Glenn

[Bluenose]

Wouldn't you know it.

“The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. The Nobel Prize-winning author’s novel about the Dust Bowl and the hard lives of displaced farmers and their families in California became a bestseller in 1939. It was banned and copies were burned in Kern County, the destination of the fictional Joad family.