Book Nook Cafe discussion

Note that near the end of the article it mentions one man's fight to stop the US Government from depositing nuclear waste on panhandle land, lest it leak into the aquifer. (This has been my fear for years, regardless where we put the waste.)

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I heard on the news a few days ago that the "Republicans are introducing a bill to Congress demanding 100 new nuclear reactors in the U.S. within 20 years." No mention of where the waste is going.

Here is one article

http://www.alternet.org/environment/1...

JanOMalleycat wrote: "I thought Egan might be guilty of wanting to share every firsthand account he was able to find, indiscriminately. Instead of presenting the best, or most representative story, of each topic, he shared ALL of them."

You may be right, Jan. I've visited several museums in different parts of the area considered to be the Dust Bowl and there are always exhibits sharing the story & the survivors. Egan may have viewed his book as their final opportunity.

What did ya'll think of McCarty, the "Last Man" who left first? Did you blame him? I was thinking his writing and enthusiasm may have engendered offers of employment elsewhere. I felt it was crappy of him but, honestly, part of me understood. Otoh, this is the image i have of such "boosters", in it until it doesn't work for them personally. I was more moved by Doc Watson & Dick Coon's respective stories. That $100 could have gotten Dick a better end of life.

deborah

deborah
What did ya'll think of McCarty, the "Last Man" who left first? Did you blame him? I was thinking his writing and enthusiasm may have engendered offers of employment elsewhere. I felt it was crappy of him but, honestly, part of me understood. Otoh, this is the image i have of such "boosters", in it until it doesn't work for them personally. I was more moved by Doc Watson & Dick Coon's respective stories. That $100 could have gotten Dick a better end of life.

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I agree. However, I do understand. He wanted to take a stand but in the end the Dust Bowl won. It did go on for a decade.

I felt the $100 was one of the most touching parts of the book.

Yes indeed, That $100 bill, a symbol of hope, ends up helping another man who whom hope had not vanished.

Deborah asked: "What did ya'll think of McCarty, the "Last Man" who left first? Did you blame him? I was thinking his writing and enthusiasm may have engendered offers of employment elsewhere. I felt it was crappy of him but, honestly, part of me understood. "

I understood completely. The thing I was struck with over and over again was that people had no idea that the drought was going to last so long nor that the damage done to the land was permanent. It would be easy to commit to staying if you thought there was going to be an upswing in a couple of years. After it became apparent that it wasn't going away, I could hardly blame anyone for leaving. In fact, it's somewhat easier to understand leaving.

Jan O'Cat

True, Jan. This point was driven home by using excerpts from Hartwell's diary. Valentine's Day after Valentine's Day. It broke ones heart, as i wasn't even sure he felt love in his marriage.

deborah

Deborah said: "This point was driven home by using excerpts from Hartwell's diary. Valentine's Day after Valentine's Day. It broke ones heart, as i wasn't even sure he felt love in his marriage."

I think that what I'll remember best about The Worst Hard Time is Harwell's diary. That was Egan's great find.

Jan O'Cat

I finally got this book through an inter-library loan and finished it last week. I was so glad to finish it because of the grit I seemed to feel in my teeth. I was visiting in Lubbock TX a few years ago over a windy, dusty weekend and was amazed at the amount of fine dirt that came in through seemingly closed windows. I can't imagine what it was like for those people having to hang wet sheets at the windows and doorways, and all the other physical horrors..It was of course worse because of the depression.
I asked my Mom 87 what she remembers about it as she lived in PA at the time and was a teenager and she remembers nothing at all about it. I guess being a youngster in a middle-class home 2000 miles away you didn't pay attention to the news.

Lynne said: "I was visiting in Lubbock TX a few years ago over a windy, dusty weekend and was amazed at the amount of fine dirt that came in through seemingly closed windows."

Lynne, my classroom faces the playground. The windows are so tight that they seem sealed, but the fine dust still gets in. As you say, an amazing amount of dust.

My mother, who is 86 and lived in Tulsa most of her life, also doesn't have any vivid impression of the Dust Bowl. I've talked upthread about how the Oklahoma Panhandle in many ways seems completely separate from the rest of Oklahoma. That and the lack of mass, widespread, and instant news from many sources--all of the things we're so used to now--probably meant that a lot of people, especially kids, didn't know much about the news at that time.

Jan O'Cat

The Writer's Almanac July 24

On this day in 1936, the Dust Bowl heat wave was so intense that Kansas and Nebraska experienced their all-time hottest temperatures, unbroken to this day. In Alton, Kansas, the temperature was 121 degrees, and in Minden, Nebraska, it was 118.

During the summer of 1936, a total of 15 states recorded all-time hottest temperatures that still have not been broken. And not all of the states were in the Dust Bowl region. Earlier in the month, Runyon, New Jersey, was 110, Moorhead, Minnesota, hit 114, and Martinsburg, West Virginia, 112. By early August, Ozark, Arkansas, and Seymour, Texas, had hit 120 degrees.

The term "Dust Bowl" had first been used on April 15, 1935, the day after "Black Sunday," when dust storms were so bad on the Great Plains that the sky was totally black during the day and there were winds up to 60 miles per hour. The term "dust bowl" was coined by Robert Geiger, a reporter and sports fan, and he might have been comparing the bowl-like formation of the Great Plains, ringed by mountains, to the appearance of the arenas for the Rose Bowl or Orange Bowl. He used it offhandedly — two days later, he referred to the same region as "the dust belt." But "dust bowl" stuck.

In The Grapes of Wrath (1939), John Steinbeck wrote: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west — from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless — restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do — to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut — anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."

The Grapes of Wrath~ John Steinbeck

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl~ Timothy Egan

Oh, those temperatures! And no air-conditioning! How did any chores get done?!


deborah

madrano wrote: "Oh, those temperatures! And no air-conditioning! How did any chores get done?!
deborah"
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Yes, 121 degrees ! Yikes. I didn't recall the book mentioning the temps got that high.

When we hit 103 with high humidity for 2 days this year, I could barely function.

Deb, loved the postcard ! It's so cool to get postcards in the mail. You are so thoughtful.

I agree, thank heaven I've never experienced a Twister. I think it's one of the most scary events as there usually is little warning.

Thank you!

We've been near a number of twisters, mainly in South Dakota. They have good basements there, so we felt safe.

Glad you liked the postcard.