Today I had the pleasure of visiting with a lady who very recently celebrated her 100th birthday. We were not previously acquainted, but that did not keep us from having a delightful visit. I can see already that if I am blessed to make it to my 100th year, I will not be quite as lucid as this woman was. What a fun time I had visiting with her!
We exchanged brief histories (well, mine was...hers was, um, twice as long...). She told about growing up in Kansas. About marrying and having children during the Dust Bowl. She asked me if I was familiar with the Dust Bowl? She told me how once she put her baby son in her big bed during a dust storm, and covered him. The she and her husband covered the door and windows of their farmhouse with sheets and blankets. Still, the dust, which was as fine as ash, she said, came through and into the house. Later she picked up her baby son off the bed, and she described that on the sheet there was an outline of her baby in the dust that had gotten through. She described how they were very poor; one night for dinner she prepared potato salad - that was it. She put the potato salad into a cupboard to keep it from the dust storm. Her husband came in late from his farm chores, and by that time, the potato salad was covered in dust, and they could not eat it.
Her husband finally decided to head west with the family. He had heard there were jobs to be had. In California! So they headed west, to Pasadena, CA. This is where the story took an interesting turn for me - MY uncles from Oklahoma left their homes and headed out to Pasadena during this time in history, too! I guess John Steinbeck knew of which he wrote.
From there, her story became much happier: they saved money while living in Pasadena, and bought a farm in Washington State, where they were very happy. I can see why. I told her our son lives in Washington - her face lit up!
Here are some photos from Kansas, circa 1911:
The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe
The Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe
Oil Gusher
Albin K. Longren taking his first flight, September 2, 1911. The plane was powered with an eight-cylinder, water-cooled, 60-horsepower motor. He built and flew the airplane without any prior experience.
A.A. Hyde, inventor of Mentholatum. 
1918 influenza victims crowdinto an emergency hospital near Fort Riley.
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic killed at least
20 million people worldwide.
It's a new world, Golda.
1 comment:
Cool! You didn't mention the lady. For work, I had to record a bunch of books so the students could listen to a native speaker read them. One of them was about the dust bowl, and this lady's story sounds just like the one I read!
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