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Only recently have I discovered that there are not very many of us still around who lived through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression years. A very small percentage of living Americans ever saw that menacing black cloud bank in the west and watch it roll in on us, literally blotting out farmsteads and towns alike.
Daytime temperatures rose to triple digits for several days at a time; winds howled; a neighbor of ours reported, jokingly I think, that he never saw rain fall until he was 11 years old.
I was there, a very young representative of the farming community of Southwest Kansas, who remembers the indescribable feeling of “blackout dust” at 11:00 o’clock in the morning. Then the family would try to clean things up while waiting for what likely would be a similar situation tomorrow.
As one who remembers, I’m going to write a few stories about my family’s activities during those ominous years and the things we did to cope with them. Everything you read here is true, although there may be an embellishment from time to time, caused by age or just plain forgetfulness.
Life wasn’t all bad. Family, neighbors and friends combined to provide periods of merriment. I’ll talk about those, too. I will tell a few stories about school activities in the early days of my life, as well as athletic accomplishments of my times, and I will touch on some of the memorable things that defined a farm kid’s remembrances of World War 2. Actually, most of the stories do not even mention the dust or the heat, but they were there just the same.
Many of you who read these stories could have written them yourself if you are about my age and lived in the defined area in which the storms occurred. That area is usually described as a strip, 300 to 500 miles wide, stretching from southern South Dakota through west Texas and parts of eastern New Mexico. If you were a kid living during the ’30s, you should by all means make some notes about the things you remember. Your family will be grateful someday.
My stories will come to you weekly. They will appear here on Hays Post and Face Book. Your reactions and remarks will always be welcomed.
Kay Melia is a longtime broadcaster, author and garden in northwest Kansas.