Dust Bowl

  • Dust Bowl,  Family History,  Oklahoma History

    Childhood Tales of the Great Depression and Drought

    written by Laurie C. Brough While waiting to checkout at the grocery store I overhear a man telling the cashier how dry it is in far Western Oklahoma. He said, “It is so dry the grasshoppers don’t even bother to stop to take a nibble cause there’s nothing to eat.” Listening to their conversation took me back to one of my Mother’s childhood stories about her days of growing up during the depression and the drought of the 1930’s. “Life was hard and my parents struggled to keep food on the table. In the morning, Daddy always got up first to tend the fire in the cook stove so Momma…

  • America,  Dust Bowl,  Famous Writers,  Oklahoma History

    Woody Guthrie’s Only Novel Published Posthumously

    Though primarily a song writer and essayist, Oklahoma’s folk hero Woody Guthrie  also managed to write a work of fiction about the historic Dust Bowl. The book “House of Earth” was released Febuary 5, 2013, decades after Woody’s death on October 3, 1967. According to Guthrie’s daughter, Nora Guthrie, “He always wrote to be heard.” The historian Douglas Brinkley and actor Johnny Depp are helping to make his wish “to be heard” an even greater reality than already seen through his songs and essays.  Brinkley, while working on a biography of Bob Dylan, came across the unpublished novel in his research and made the decision to pursue bringing the work to life from…

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  • Dust Bowl

    Sweeping Dust Storm in Arizona History

    See Video of Arizona Dust Storm AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EDT July 6, 2011 6:01 AM ET Strong winds push massive dust cloud into Phoenix, reducing visibility and delaying flights PHOENIX (AP) — A massive dust storm descended on the Phoenix area on Tuesday night, drastically reducing visibility and delaying flights as strong winds downed trees and caused power outages for thousands of residents. The dust cloud that hit the valley had originated in an afternoon storm in the Tucson area before moving north across the desert, said National Weather Service meteorologist Paul Iniguez. Before bearing down on the Phoenix valley, radar data showed the storm’s towering…