The 1940 film "The Grapes of Wrath" is set during the American depression of the 1930s. The Joad family, farmers in Oklahoma, lose their farm and decide to move to California. The entire family and their belongings are loaded into a car and they drive west on the Route 66 highway. They stop at a truck stop restaurant in New Mexico where two Joad children are effectively given candy canes by truck drivers eating there who leave a large tips to pay for them. The restaurant waitress holds two large half-dollar coins.

Pa Joad (Russell Simpson) takes the two children Ruthie Joad and Winfield Joad inside.

Ruthie and Winfield examine candy which they cannot afford while Waitress Mae watches. Two truck drivers signal May to sell the children the candy canes for a low price which she does. The Joads then leave.

The two truck drivers leave and each leaves a tip of a half-dollar coin.

May says to herself "truck drivers!." The coins look like real US half dollar coins.

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad
Jane Darwell as "Ma" Joad
John Carradine as Jim Casy
Charley Grapewin as William James "Grandpa" Joad
Dorris Bowdon as Rose of Sharon "Rosasharn" Joad
Russell Simpson as "Pa" Joad
John Qualen as Muley Graves
Shirley Mills as Ruth "Ruthie" Joad
Darryl Hickman as Winfield Joad
Kitty McHugh as Waitress Mae
Director: John Ford
Writers: Nunnally Johnson
Based on the 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck