Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Sixty-four-year-old Linda May drives along the Foothill Freeway and onto Highway 330, an hour outside of Los Angeles. The road becomes more treacherous as she drives into the San Bernardino National Forest towards her destination: Hanna Flat campground, where she will work as a campground host from May to September. She drives up to the campsite in her refurbished Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo, which tows her tiny 1970s pale yellow trailer lovingly named “the Squeeze Inn.” Linda bought the trailer, 10’ long and just over 5’ high inside, at an auction for $1,400. The drive up is long and difficult, but Linda once worked as a long-haul truck driver and is used to it.

This is Linda’s third summer working as a seasonal campground host, where she earns $9.35/hour, a raise from the minimum wage ($9.00/hour) she earned during past seasons. Although she is an at-will employee without job security, she is expected to work at least 40 hours per week.

Despite the beautiful surroundings, campground hosting can be physically demanding, and may entail “babysitting drunk, noisy campers, shoveling heaps of ash and broken class from the campfire pits […] and the thrice-daily ritual of cleaning outhouses” (6). Linda doesn’t mind these duties and takes pride in her work, claiming she is not afraid to work hard even if it means scrubbing toilets.