Yesterday the man from the government came and paid daddy for the cows. I thought he was going to take them with him but he didn't. Daddy and three other men dug the tractor out where it was buried in the dust. Then they dug a big hole with it. That hole was so big that they drove those cows and the neighbors cows down in it and you couldn't even see them in there unless you was standing on the edge. Daddy told me to stay back but I snuck to the edge and looked in anyway. Then the men lined up on the edge with the guns and they shot those cows. After they left daddy stood there for what must have been an hour and just looked in the hole. Then he wiped his arm across his face like there was dust blowing or something which there wasn't and put his hat back on. He climbed up on the tractor and started burying the cows and that's when I went behind the house and cried.
I'm nine years old. I don't remember a time when we didn't have dust. My brother is 14 now. He says that he remembers when there were acres and acres of fine golden wheat and that everyone around had nice new clothes and plenty to eat. He said the country depended on our wheat and we were paid well for growing it. He says that they didn't used to have to wear goggles and masks to school. He also said that they left the windows open and the wind didn't blow anything in but cool air and sunshine. It's nice to think about but I don't know. All I've ever seen is the dust and bare ground.
Last week they buried little Carly Sims and her mama too. Everybody said how sad it was that Carly died so young because of the dust pneumonia but nobody talked about her mama. I heard whispers that she gave up and hung herself right in the barn. I'm not sure if that's true but it wouldn't be the first one who done it. Daddy says some folks just lose hope and since hope is all we got left when that happens they can't help themselves.
Most of the older boys have gone west looking for work. Why I've seen whole families pack their cars and leave everything that wouldn't fit when they left their homes. One neighbor left mama some of her sheets to hang over the windows and doors to help keep the dust out. Ours were wearing thin and mama says they help but I'm not sure because that dust comes in anyways through the cracks and joints. When you wake up in the morning your throat is parched from breathing it. I get tired of the masks but they're better then going without them.
They say we caused the dust to come because we plowed up all the grass and planted wheat and then the rains stopped. Every day starts with a prayer for rain. When you meet someone in town the conversation is always about the weather and rain or lack of it. Some folks say its Gods punishment that we ain't had no rain. I don't know about that but it sure seems like one of them plagues the preacher talks about. Why even though we can barely grow a garden the grasshoppers come and the rabbits come and eat up anything that we do manage to grow. They eat up every scrap of green they can find. The government told the farmers to put cyanide on the ground to kill the grasshoppers but it doesn't seem to help because they just keep coming.
Mama cleans the house all the time but the dust keeps coming in. We eat the dust and breathe the dust and wear the dust. It's on everything and after the winds start blowing in the big storms sometimes the doors won't open until someone climbs out the window and shovels the dirt away. Most days we live off of store bought beans and cornbread. The gardens don't make much and the animals are too skinny for us to eat. Most the animals died or were eaten a long time ago anyway. There wasn't no food for them and what food we had went to our own table. They say that animals all over the country are being slaughtered because of the depression and they used to rely on our grain to feed them. Since we can't grow grain they can't feed their animals.
People leave here looking for work all the time but daddy says they ain't in much better shape then us. He says the whole country is out of work and he can be hungry here just as good as some other place. I guess he's right but sometimes I wish we could go too.
It's been eight years and some people say its never going to end. Others say its got to rain one day and when it rains everything will be better. Today we were supposed to go to town and everybody was ready to go but when we walked outside it started to thunder. "Another dust storm" mama said, "we better stay home". But Daddy stopped dead on the bottom step and looked up with his face to the sky. That's when the rain started. When that rain started it was like God turned on a faucet and let out all that good wet rain to drench everything. Mama cried and daddy laughed and even though we had our good clothes on us children ran around in that glorious storm. It looks like maybe things might get better soon......................
And it did get better. Just like that after eight years of drought and dust storms during the thirties the rain started and the great dust bowl was over. The land improved and people went back to farming. They learned some things from the dust bowl and began trying to farm smarter without stripping the land. Yet, there are still periods of drought. There are still vast acres of land that are plowed and farmed.
We have become a country that depends on getting our food from far away and stopping to get just what we need every couple of days. If we go back to being more self sufficient and providing some of our own food then a catastrophe like the Great Depression and the eight years of the dust bowl don't have to cripple us. It's very depressing learning about those times of suffering sprinkled through our past but if we can learn from their mistakes then we who are the Preppers can be the survivors the next time.
Southern Wood Elf