By Marylin Schultz
Clouds of black dirt rolled across the plains of midwest America in the late 1920’s and the 1930’s, giving a generic name to the era, “the dirty thirties,” as well as “the dust bowl” to the affected land. PBS has publicized a Ken Burns’ documentary on that bleak time in our country’s history, and I have a personal story to add, told to me by my mother.
My parents were married in 1932, a brave and hopeful couple, living more on dreams than dollars. Although my father was employed in the insurance company begun by his father in Childress, Texas, before the “crash of 1929,” most of his income came from commissions, and insurance was considered a luxury by many people during those poor economic times. He was in charge of the branch office in Albuquerque.
The first child was born to the couple in 1934. My mother decided to visit her mother who lived in Amarillo. She was on a bus with her infant, about halfway through their journey east, when a cold wind picked up. Off in the distance was an unbelievable sight. In the sky, to the north, a huge black wall seemed to be approaching them. A wave of darkness, reaching from the ground, hundreds of feet into the sky, was rapidly rolling towards them. The driver pulled the bus off of the road and hurried down the aisle with a container of water, shouting an explanation and directions.
“It’s top-soil, comin’ fast, and here’s what you got to do. Dampen your handkerchiefs with this water and hold it over your nose and mouth, ‘else you’ll choke to death!” My mother was terrified, especially for her infant. She carefully dipped two handkerchiefs into the offered water and tied one across her baby’s face and the other across her own. Of course, the tiny infant was upset by the unusual circumstances and began crying. The anxious mother hugged him to her breast and tried to comfort the struggling child.
“Close your eyes,” the driver continued, now back in his seat. “We just got to wait it out and hope it don’t take long to pass by us.”
The black cloud was now upon them. It was darker than a moonless night; absolute, total darkness. The bitter, cold wind shook the bus. With the eerie whistling of the wind came muffled screams and moans of some of the passengers. The few minutes it took for the cloud to move beyond the bus, seemed like a long journey down into the depths of hell and back!
The welcome relief of stillness and daylight lasted several minutes, before anyone spoke.
“Everyone okay back there?” the driver called out. Then, like a flood, the comments came forth. Exclamations of the incredible experience filled the air. Dirty faces now emerged, but with grins that showed how no one minded “a little dirt,” because they all survived the momentary terror!
Many years later, my mother and I were tourists in the Black Hills of South Dakota, being guided through a deep cave. The tour guide, as part of his usual lecture, turned off the lights to let us experience the total darkness. However, he did not tell the group ahead of time, that this was his intention. The result of being plunged, once more, into total darkness, my Mom grabbed my arm and screamed! When the light was turned on, she gave a brief, embarrassed explanation of the fright she had experienced so long ago.
NOTE: WRITING TOPIC — CLOUD is the latest Writing Topic on red Ravine. Frequent guest writer Marylin Schultz is joining QuoinMonkey and Bob Chrisman in doing a Writing Practice on the topic.
Very nice piece. Horrifying scene! Wonder what happens to livestock in these?
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Thanks for commenting, Mike. I believe that most livestock that were out in the open perished, eith from suffocation or starving. Nothing was growing, and most ranchers could not afford to buy hay. Sad time in our history!
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[…] Comments « PRACTICE — Cloud — 10min […]
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Tim Egan NW writer has a book out about the dust bowl, “The worst hard time-Untold story of the dust bowl.” I have not read it -but will.
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[…] pieces for red Ravine include the travel essay Rollin’ Easy, Writing Practices Kindness and Cloud, and two memoir pieces, Images From The Past, and Two Little Girls & A World At […]
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Marylin, I thought of you and this Writing Practice when I watched the Ken Burns documentary The Dust Bowl (LINK) last week. The archived footage was amazing and terrifying. I’ve heard stories about the dust bowl but to see those images really drove it home. One of the worst environmental disasters in the world and mostly man-made from the glut of wheat production. What did you think of the documentary?
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QM; I thought it was very well done. There was more footage than I thought there would be. The 2nd night, they commented on a very bad storm on the day I was born, May 21, 1937! My folks never mentioned it or anything else about those dust storms, (besides the recollection of my mother.) But they were in Albuquerque, so maybe most of the storms were north of where they lived.
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oliverowl, I thought The Dust Bowl was very well done, too. I could not imagine living that way for years on end, especially if I was trying to raise children and provide food for them. And there were people in Washington at that time that wanted to give up on the strip down the middle of the country where the drought was occurring, but Roosevelt wouldn’t have it. He provided government assistance to help provide solutions like contour plowing, and to keep people working and keep up their self-esteem when they really had nothing left. It drives home to me more than ever that the government definitely has a role to play in disasters and that we as a country need to help fund it for the benefit of the whole country, not just our individual selves. We can see the same thing now on the East Coast with Sandie.
The film footage was amazing and the personal stories about growing up in the Dust Bowl. I agree, when I looked at the map, Albuquerque seemed to be a little far south for the New Mexico part of the Dust Bowl. I bet the storms were mostly north of them. Wasn’t it amazing, too, how people got stuck in their cars during these storms. And the footage of people sweeping tons of sand out of their houses. It’s just so hard to imagine.
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QM, My parents were “born ‘n bred” Republicans, and didn’t like Roosevelt. When I learned what he did for our country during this awful time of not only the dust storms and drought, but the whole nation facing the task of recovery from the depression, I admired him for the bold steps he took! The WPA and CCC programs were exactly what the country needed.
I don’t know why our government can’t put currently unemployed people to work now on replacing the infrastructures in the cities, which must need to take place by now. After the bridge collapse in Mpls. everyone is aware of the need to replace roads, bridges, tunnels, probably most of the sewer systems in the eastern cities, etc.! I agree with you that the government has a role to play. Sure, it would be nice if we didn’t have any taxes to pay, but where do people think the money is going to come from to to finance vital needs? Our citizens in Cody voted down a “one cent” tax raise, even though our fire dept. is still staffed by volunteers! (I could hardly believe it! So short sighted.)
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oliverowl, how can a community vote down a one cent tax raise to support their own fire department? It’s hard to understand how people can be so short sighted, yet it’s happening all over this country right now. It seems like some people take rigid stands based on fear and declare – no new taxes. Yet taxes are what support programs to help citizens whose homes are wiped away by hurricanes or tornadoes or fires. State governments are not wealthy enough to handle the expenses of such devastation. Nor are states wealthy enough to handle providing healthcare to each of their citizens. Unfortunately, we can’t have it both ways. Can’t say “no new taxes” and then beat down the door of the U.S. government when a crisis comes up. It sure can be frustrating and disheartening. Somehow we’ve got to start looking at the country as one large community built to help each other along the path to prosperity, rather than the what’s in it for me attitude.
That’s interesting about your parents and Roosevelt. Saw the footage of Roosevelt in his car with the top down, touring the Midwest. I love historical black & white footage.
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