As some of you know, Lori and I did a lot of reading about the Dustbowl this summer. Did you know thousands of people died because of it? Did you know cattle and horses died, too? Did you know it took place in Eastern Colorado, as well as the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma? And it was arguably the first obvious human caused natural disaster in the U.S.? The scars on the land still exist today in some parts of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle, and the tumbling tumble weeds we sing about actually came to our country as an alien species precursor to this disaster.
As we drove back across the country after visiting Michigan, we crossed the Oklahoma panhandle, and even saw some of the places mentioned in the book. Lori took these photos there, too...
One of the books we read was called The Worst Hard Time, and was excellent. A friend of mine from school, Carolyn Shaw, had recommend it to me, and then Lori picked it up and read it first (Imagine that!) Then I got started on it.
Children of the Dustbowl was another good one we read, with the kids. Wesley is now reading
Dust for Dinner in his third grade class at school. And my personal connection to it, through my family, is that my maternal grandparents left western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma in the early to mid 1930's to move to California. The suffered prejudice as "
Okies", which you can read about in Children of the
Dustbowl. The first two books are great personal histories, with a lot of oral history woven in, and are easy reads. (I am sure the third one is, too, since they are reading it in third grade!) Anyway, I have been inspired to learn more about this time in our nation's history ever since, and have discovered a love for cowboy poetry, too.
Here is one site of a Cowboy Poet which you might like. She writes a lot about the
Dustbowl...
http://www.cowboypoetry.com/janemorton.htm
Turning to Face the Wind and Dad's Tractor are two of my favorites. Check it out!
And no, in case you were wondering, I haven't bought pointy toed boots, or even a Stetson hat. But I think I am a cowboy, or at least a country boy, somewhere in my heart! Yee-haw!
Labels: Arkansas, Colorado, Colorado Springs, cowboy, Dustbowl, farming, history, Oklahoma, poetry
