Interesting program on PBS. I enjoyed the interviews of people who lived through the dust bowl years in their childhood. Quite an ordeal to live through I bet.
It is a very well put together and factual documentary.
My father grew up in Woods County, Ok. and my mother grew up in Cotton County, Ok. during the Depression and the Dust Bowl. Both were from large families that "stuck it out" during those years on their land. It truly affected their entire lives.
I really appreciated Burns' dedication to telling the personal story bridled with the historic chronology.
My Dad was born in 1930, the youngest of 10 on a cotton farm in the Texas panhandle. When someone mentioned wind chill during the winter, He would always say "If there had been such a thing as a wind chill factor when I was a kid, we would have all froze to death".
We lived there until I was 15. Setting the plates upside down during a dust storm was just standard procedure. One sandstorm took the chrome of the handlebars on my bicycle. It was bright and shiny on one side and a dull gray on the other. I paid $20 for that bike at a garage sale. That was money I made moving irrigation pipe and hoeing cotton.
I have caught parts of the show. I haven't watched it all the way thru yet.
James
The 160 acres homesteaded by Granddad Cow is just a few miles to the southwest of the Henderson family farm which is mentioned repeatedly in the PBS story. It is about 30 miles east of Boise City which is called the center of the dust bowl area. I was pleased to hear them pronounce Boise correctly; it has no long "E" sound on the end.
My dad was born in 1919 SW of Minco, OK. His primary job during the dust bowel was hauling water for the stock. About 3 mile round trip, 3 wooden barrels in a wagon and a 2 horse team. Not bad for a 14-15 year old kid. My mom was only 9-10 from the same area.
Dad is on the right. The house and barn are still there.
On the surveying side of the story, it was interesting to hear J.Penry describe looking for original monuments in Nebraska. It's been awhile since he posted on the subject, but from what I believe I remember, during the the dust bowl era there were sand dunes that were created and shifting sometimes accumulating feet (don't remember how much) of cover over some surfaces.
When I was employed by the Bureau of Reclamation in the 1960's, we did quite a lot of work in western Nebraska. A lot of the old fences were buried from the dust from the fields, probably 4½ to 5 feet, and new fences were built over these on the dust berm.
The land where I grew up in West Texas was not fenced with very few exceptions. I knew of one fence that was built between neighbors that did not get along. As the tumble weeds and mesquite grew and held sand, another fence had to be built on top of the sand dune. That was all before my time. Dad told me that the sand dune was 4 fences deep. That was about 1970.
