The Dust Bowl
I picked up The Dust Bowl by Ken Burns at the library this week. Utterly fascinating, if you're interested in the convergence of social history and soil science.
The photographs of the families who lived through this will break your heart. The dignity and gravitas are humbling.
10 comments:
During the few times in my life when the only thing anyone could focus on was how dry the conditions were, I would often say there is no way I could have ever lived through the dust bowl. I vividly remember studying it in school and the pictures I saw. I think this would be too hard a read for me. My skin is happy I live on the coast, and my hair is almost always frizzy, but I'm certain I could not survive the dessert cities either. Thanks for sharing.
I saw that a few years ago and loved it. Incredible stuff.
I saw it on PBS. It's really fascinating!
I have seen this on PBS. Heartbreaking and fascinating at the same time.
My parents were little children in Oklahoma during the "Dirty Thirties", as they called it. Between that and the Great Depression (and later WWII) they suffered a lot of trauma in their young lives. They were sustained by a strong religious faith and by strong, loyal, large families. I try to teach my own children about how rugged and brave they were, and how they owe it to their grandparents' memory not to often complain about the little problems of life.
I have watched a little of this documentary. Very interesting. I lived in Western Kansas in the mid-50's & we would have dust storms that would barrel in looking like a thunderstorm. We had wet towels in the windows to try to keep out dust. But afterwards, we would have to really clean the house. It was just part of life, but I'm sure it was much worse in the 30's.
I love this book! My family wound up in California b/c my grandfather moved from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl. My grandmother moved from Arkansas. They met in California working menial labor jobs when they were 19 and "went up after church" to have the pastor marry them in front of all who had been present at the service. The next week, my grandfather was shipped overseas to fight in WWII. It's so humbling and overwhelming to hear historical accounts of major events first hand.
What a coincidence, I was just reading that book. We are studying the Great Depression in homeschool right now. Just today I was looking at the pictures and thinking how horrid it must have been.
Amy F.
My daughter watched parts of it with me (she's 12) and was fascinated. To explain that this happened when my parents were born and her great-grandma was a teen rang true with her. She's now beginning to piece together all the history events and understand the story. And Ken Burns' work is just so rich and enjoyable to watch.
We watched this for homeschool -- what a great show. I can't imagine the kind of tenacity it took to live through that time in history.
Post a Comment