Late in 19 60, steinbeck wrote the incident most reported and pictured in the newspapers was the matriculation of a of tiny negro children. What made the newsmen love the story? A group of stout, middle aged women who gathered every day to scream invectives at children. No newspaper had printed the words these women shouted, but now i heard the words bestial and filthy and degenerate. These were not mothers. They were not even women. They were crazy actors playing to a crazy audience. When france happened, the school i went to, rivers frederick junior high school, was located in the seventh ward. I lived in the lower ninth ward.