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Drama/Comedy. By Lowell Swortzell. Cast: 1m., 1w., extras (Animals, Townsfolk, a Miller, a Hostess, a Prospector, Fiddler, Harmonica Player, Singers and Dancers). Sweet Betsy may have been our first Chief Executive Officer, who set out determinedly to make and solidify her fortune.
Oh, don't you remember Sweet Betsy from Pike
Who crossed the wide mountains with her lover Ike,
With two yoke of cattle, a large yeller dog,
A tall Shanghai rooster, and one spotted hog.
These are the opening lyrics to the famous folk song about the gold rush days, detailing the ups and downs of covered wagon life, mixing the romance and hardship of life in the years of the 1840s to the 1860s, when thousands of pioneers traveled from east of the Mississippi River to California in search of gold.
Time: 1850s
Place: From Missouri to California
From offstage, the Company sings:
Company: "Oh, don't your remember sweet Betsy from Pike?"
Lights come up on Betsy, who speaks to the audience.
Betsy: No, I don't think you do. The song maybe, but not me. Besty. That's all right, you will after you see this. We begin, where else, but in Pike. That's Pike County in Missouri, as we head for California, or as we call it, Californy.
Ike, her husband, enters.
Ike: Everything's in the wagon except you. Coming?
Betsy: Just one last look. It was home, Ike.
Ike: I'm not going to miss it. Are you?
Betsy: Maybe someday after we're rich we can return and buy this farm back. Wouldn't that be nice?
Ike: You'd have to be rich 'cause you can't make a living here. Lord knows we tried. And each year got worse.
Betsy: I'll miss our friends, my family, even your family, everybody, such good people.
Ike: Me, too. (Weakening.) Should I unload the wagon?
Betsy: Hands off! This journey is my idea. And I'm never one to back away, no matter what.
Ike: You've got more stick-to-it-iveness than anybody I know.
Betsy: Once I heard there's all that gold in Californy, I said, "Give me some." It's in the ground just waiting to be scooped up. That's what they say.
Ike: And the sooner we leave, the sooner we scoop.
Betsy: You understand I don't want much, just enough to pay our debts and to take care of the animals.
Ike: Then we're on our way, right?
Betsy: Californy or Bust!
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