THE DIRTY 30'S
I recently read a book "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan that was eye opening to me about the Dust Bowl years. Growing up in the wheat and cattle areas of Montana and North Dakota, I remember people mentioning the Dust Bowl and how it changed farming methods in the western plains. But I never really connected it to my own family - after all, in the 1930's my parents and their families were in Lancaster County - the Dust Bowl was half a continent away.
After reading this book, and finding and watching the 1936 film, "The Plow That Broke the Plains" the light bulb suddenly went off in my head. My grandparents would have read articles in the newspaper and listened to news broadcasts on the radio that included references to the Dust Bowl. So... fast forward to 1960 when my father announced he was going to Bible college in Omaha, Nebraska, and he and mom would be moving. To my maternal grandparents, this was not only an awful sin by removing family members from being within a few miles of each other, but for them (both from farming families) it would have brought back the awful news headlines they saw about the Dust Bowl.
It also explains to me why they made frequent drives from Lancaster County out to see us wherever we happened to be that summer: Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, or Nebraska. Did we have enough to eat, what was our clothing situation, how far away was the doctor, etc.??? It explains Pappy talking to farmers in the area, looking and feeling the dirt, and staring at the wide distances of grass and sky. He was fascinated with the openness of the prairies, Grandma found it very scary. Aunt Emma rode out with them one summer and could not believe we actually had running water and a toilet in our house.
After reading this book, and finding and watching the 1936 film, "The Plow That Broke the Plains" the light bulb suddenly went off in my head. My grandparents would have read articles in the newspaper and listened to news broadcasts on the radio that included references to the Dust Bowl. So... fast forward to 1960 when my father announced he was going to Bible college in Omaha, Nebraska, and he and mom would be moving. To my maternal grandparents, this was not only an awful sin by removing family members from being within a few miles of each other, but for them (both from farming families) it would have brought back the awful news headlines they saw about the Dust Bowl.
It also explains to me why they made frequent drives from Lancaster County out to see us wherever we happened to be that summer: Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, or Nebraska. Did we have enough to eat, what was our clothing situation, how far away was the doctor, etc.??? It explains Pappy talking to farmers in the area, looking and feeling the dirt, and staring at the wide distances of grass and sky. He was fascinated with the openness of the prairies, Grandma found it very scary. Aunt Emma rode out with them one summer and could not believe we actually had running water and a toilet in our house.
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