The Dust Bowl

[ljbab728]

I just finished watching the second and last installment of Ken Burn's latest documentary. It's obviously a story that we, in this area, are very familiar with. The documentary doesn't really break any new ground in telling the basic history which is well known. Where it shines, as usual with his work, is in the personal stories and rememberances of people who were there and lived through the worst of it. That part was particularly fascinating and gives a new found admiration for our relatives and ancestors.

[RadicalModerate]

I agree. Completely. Yet . . . (somehow) . . . The Question remains: "What IS 'The Learning' Here" . . . (well . . . doesn't it)?
(my take: less personal greed and stupidity combined with effective law enforcement . . .? )

btw: my forebears--or is that forebearers?--from these parts stuck around. i moved back a long time ago relatively speaking.

suggestion 1: stop wasting water on pet lawns.
suggestion 2: check out T.Boone Pickens control of drilling into the aquifer (osu has enough different sporting suits to wear)
suggestion 3: draw your own conclusions and act accordingly (hint: that means lead by example and be kind)

[ThomPaine]

I thought it was pretty good, but probably could have been edited down to less than four hours. The second half was more interesting than the first, probably because, as you mentioned, it put more of a face on the suffering. Pretty interesting info on the WPA and folks' attitudes toward it. Also a good illustration of what happens to your political "ideals" when you can no longer feed your family.

[kelroy55]

I watched and liked it as well.

[PennyQuilts]

I enjoyed it - the part I particularly liked (besides the photos, of course) was the contemporaneous descriptions of the beauty and magnificence of the dust bowl area before the dust bowl. I also enjoyed the photography tossed in showing brilliant blue skies in re-enactments of sunny days at the time. All we see are black and white photos and most of them have been saved because they depict the horrors that the area endured. That's human nature. It was clearly just awful, but seeing and hearing about the beauty and the love the people had for the land gives the story more depth, to me.

Common sense says that there must have been many lovely days between the storms else they'd never even had an opportunity to plant failed crops year after year after year. But like most of us, when I think of that time and place, all I think of is blowing sand in black and white. And that is a huge part of it but not all of it. People still lived, fell in love, went to school, married, had babies, went to church, etc. And most of them outstayed the blight.

My father-in-law, born in 1925, lived in Central Oklahoma, mostly OKC during that time. He doesn't really have any memories of the dust bowl other than dust storms from time to time. It isn't that he blocked it out - it is just that the extreme dust bowl area was fairly confined to a large area but that didn't necessarily include the whole state. When I lived back east, a lot of people assumed that all the top soil in Oklahoma had blown away and it was like a WWI battlefield - all barbed wire and dirt with tornadoes tossed in. Many seemed so surprised that I think it is lovely and I'd show them photos. I loved the line in the show to the effect that "if you live there long enough to wear out a pair of boots, you'll stay."

[ou48A]

Having been born in the heart of the dust bowl and then later living in the heart of the dust bowl as a young adult this was of particular interest.

At one time or another I have been in most of the towns mentioned. I heard many similar first-hand accounts from older people that I knew. These were mostly very tough people and by today’s standards so are most of their decedents. But they are also very nice, trusting, salt of the earth people.

A few people I knew moved to California and then back after WWII. What surprised me the most in the documentary was that of all the people who moved to California only 16,000 came from the heart of the dust bowl.

Not nearly enough has been document about the dust bowl and the potential for reoccurrence. Even if the dust never blows again the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer will have a tremendous impact on food prices and availability. 20 % of our nation’s aquiculture production uses Ogallala aquifer water.

I thought this was a well written and produced documentary. It would probably be good to show this in our schools for years to come.

My parents lived in far SW Kansas in the 1950's when the dirt started blowing again, it was very bad for them.
They still have periodic dust storms. I have been though a few fairly bad dust storms, but it wasn’t anything like what these folks faced.

I can’t image the living hell they faced everywhere they looked.

[ou48A]

I enjoyed it - the part I particularly liked (besides the photos, of course) was the contemporaneous descriptions of the beauty and magnificence of the dust bowl area before the dust bowl. I also enjoyed the photography tossed in showing brilliant blue skies in re-enactments of sunny days at the time. All we see are black and white photos and most of them have been saved because they depict the horrors that the area endured. That's human nature. It was clearly just awful, but seeing and hearing about the beauty and the love the people had for the land gives the story more depth, to me.

Common sense says that there must have been many lovely days between the storms else they'd never even had an opportunity to plant failed crops year after year after year. But like most of us, when I think of that time and place, all I think of is blowing sand in black and white. And that is a huge part of it but not all of it. People still lived, fell in love, went to school, married, had babies, went to church, etc. And most of them outstayed the blight.

My father-in-law, born in 1925, lived in Central Oklahoma, mostly OKC during that time. He doesn't really have any memories of the dust bowl other than dust storms from time to time. It isn't that he blocked it out - it is just that the extreme dust bowl area was fairly confined to a large area but that didn't necessarily include the whole state. When I lived back east, a lot of people assumed that all the top soil in Oklahoma had blown away and it was like a WWI battlefield - all barbed wire and dirt with tornadoes tossed in. Many seemed so surprised that I think it is lovely and I'd show them photos. I loved the line in the show to the effect that "if you live there long enough to wear out a pair of boots, you'll stay."

There are many bright sunshiny days on the high plains….. but don’t let the pictures fool you. It’s not very often when the wind doesn’t blow. The only weather I miss is how the summer nights cool off like a dessert. It was often very comfortable in the early morning hours before it hit 100+


The high plains are a much harsher place to live than central Oklahoma and on this it’s not even close.
The weather, isolation, and economic monopolies where negative factors in the small towns in my book, but there are people who love it out there.

I have been in true white out conditions about 20 miles north of Guymon (not far from where the old lady had homesteaded in 1907)where you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Such conditions are not uncommon a few times a year.

[RadicalModerate]

I was in a dust storm in Odessa, Texas one time. Watching it approach was like seeing the worst thunderstorm ever approaching, except right on the ground. It only lasted for a few minutes and I'm sure was only a faint echo of what the folks in the documentary had to live through, but it was still memorable.

[ou48A]

I was in a dust storm in Odessa, Texas one time. Watching it approach was like seeing the worst thunderstorm ever approaching, except right on the ground. It only lasted for a few minutes and I'm sure was only a faint echo of what the folks in the documentary had to live through, but it was still memorable.

I spent more than a few days and night in Odessa.

What’s weird to me is that there is or was no farming done in the county where Odessa is, yet it’s pretty dusty…. Nearby Midland has more money and is a nicer city but it’s more dusty. In 1985 I was driving though the city of Midland in my 300ZX and encountered a tumble weed that was about half the size of my car.
The tumble weeds do a great job of collecting dust along barbed wire fences.

PS: if you can get past the dust and are in the right parts of town that don’t stink Lubbock is not a bad place to live.