Mike Adams performs Woody Guthrie folk music as part of a Nebraska Humanities Council Presentation

If you ever sang “This Land is Your Land” in school, you might be interested to know that a couple verses probably were left out.

One verse in the Woody Guthrie classic talks about a “no trespassing” sign. The other tells about hungry people standing in a relief office line in the 1930s.

Those verses were left out when public schools picked up this song in the 1950s, said Kate Benzel, English professor at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

Benzel served as narrator to musician Mike Adams who played and sang Guthrie tunes on Friday afternoon in the Chautauqua Tent at John C. Fremont Days. Those who attended the Nebraska Humanities program got a history lesson on the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and Guthrie.

Kate Benzel narrates for Mike Adams regarding the life of folk musician Woody Guthrie

Benzel, who teaches a class about the 1930s, described the Great Depression as a time of high unemployment, poverty and declining economic growth. At the height of the Depression, America experienced 33 percent unemployment with another 25 percent of workers having hours or wages cut. One of every two households faced unemployment or underemployment, she said. Grocery purchases, between 1929 and 1932, dropped 50 percent and bread to 8 cents a loaf.

“No one had any money to buy anything,” she said.

Tammy Real-McKeighan Fremont Tribune FremontTribune.com
Posted: Saturday, July 10, 2010 3:10 am

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