I'm not sure how many of you saw this special series on PBS by Ken Burns about the
'The Dust Bowl.' In standard Ken Burns style it was spectacular...
My parents both came out to California during the 'migration' and this series really gave me a much better undestanding of what was happening during the 30'/40's in Oklahoma. (Mom and Dad were born about 40 miles apart in Calumet and Carniage - but were just children when they moved out to Califonia - they eventually met at a Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys 'dance' in rural Fresno County.
Anyhow - if you misssed it - the DVD can be purchased, (oh man - the photography was outstanding and the restored to HD quality was beautiful!) or you can stream the entire show at PBS:
Home | THE DUST BOWL
I've made this mandatory viewing for my daughter!
On a side note - my recent drive out to Dallas (last May) - I routed my way home via Northern New Mexico. I travelled N/W from Dallas thru Amarillo and for the heck of it wanted to pass thru Oklahoma - which was the very tip of the panhandle - Boise City OK. I learned from this PBS series that Boise City was the 'epicenter' of the Dust Bowl and was able to take in one of the most beautiful sunsets ever - between Boise City and Clayton NM... Pics later!
"THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the "Great Plow-Up," followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews with twenty-six survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance. It is also a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us—a lesson we ignore at our peril."
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