Everyday Canvas

On May 6

Lots of cool things happened on this day in history, share something really cool from your neck of the woods with us. I've included a link in case you can't think of anything. There are more things than the channel tunnel, which is pretty cool in itself.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/english-channel-tunnel-opens

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I believe my neck’o the woods was all swampland until recently. The town I am in was built in 1968 around ten houses that were basically hunters' shacks. At this time, no swampland is visible and the town sprawls over quite a large area with a population of 200,000 plus. I don’t think May 6 applies to any part of its history; however, something literary happened on May 6 that I find quite endearing to me.

On May 6, 1940, John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for The Grapes of Wrath. The story is about a family, Joads, who lose their family farm in Oklahoma and move to California. They face many difficulties and fall into poverty. Rich descriptions, great plot, and exquisite dialogue--yet, with simple and plain language—make the book a superb work of literature as well as the social commentary of its times.

During my teens and early adult years, I was mesmerized with Steinbeck’s writing after reading his novels such as Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, The Pearl, and later Travels with Charlie.

Steinbeck also won the Nobel Prize in 1962.

Here are a few quotes from The Grapes of Wrath:

“Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor.”

“There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do.”

“The land is so much more than its analysis.”

“Yes, you should talk," he said. "Sometimes a sad man can talk the sadness right out through his mouth. Sometimes a killin' man can talk the murder right out of his mouth.”

“And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed.”

“it was her habit to build up laughter out of inadequate materials.”

“You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff”

“and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”

“Muscles aching to work, minds aching to create - this is man.”

“I nearly always write just as I nearly always breathe.”