@Overly Serious - After WWI, veterans were to get a cash bonus from the government, payable in 1945. When the Depression hit, many vets asked to get the bonus immediately. Congress said no. In the summer of 1932, thousands of vets and their families went to Washington to lobby Congress for the money. They stayed in makeshift housing. People donated food, clothing, and the like. They got a lot of support from the DC police chief, a vet himself. No money from Congress at that time. In the end, Douglas MacArthur and the Army removed the Bonus Army from their camp, causing casualties.
Here's more. Am sorry to see that may not have been covered in history class.
en.wikipedia.org
"Puke a dog off a gut wagon". Something we'd say on the farm. "Gut wagons" were wagons, now trucks, taking diseased animal carcasses to rendering plants, where they were turned into various products. Dogs would get on the wagons and apparently have a snack. If the smell was bad enough the dogs would puke.