Progress
is man's ability to complicate simplicity. Thor Heyerdahl
The Dust Bowl tested the ability of the Western Kansas farmer to survive and
rise above adversity. I remember those days vividly as we put wet sheets
over windows attempting to bring relief from heat and dirt. I didn’t give
it much thought at the time; it was just something everyone did.
From
1930 until 1936 my uncle moved his family to western Kansas and rented a farm
about eleven miles south of Horace. They had their first wheat harvest in
1931 which averaged twenty bushel per acre, but he only received 36 cents per
bushel for the first load. The price then dropped to 25 cents and stayed
there until the harvest was over.
The next year they increased the acreage, but the wheat was so poor they just
cut patches in the fields. The wheat was then loaded into a box car at
Horace and shipped to Cardwell in Wichita. At the time the price in
Horace was only 19 cents per bushel. That was slim pickens!
On April 14, 1935, a storm hit just as my cousin was about halfway around the
field he was plowing. He was driving a caterpillar tractor and pulling
two one-way plows over a section. It took him from 2 pm until 6 pm to
cover one round and get back where he had started. The storm would let up
once and awhile so he could see the furrow he had been following. He
could only move a few yards at a time then stop and wait for the next
lull. His father and younger brother finally came to pick him up.
After driving around the field twice they grew terribly frustrated. You
couldn’t see the tractor although it was only 100 feet from the
road.
His
father finally stopped and got out of the car. Well, uncle always wore a
hat and the storm blew it right off. That hat just kept spiraling around
and going higher until it disappeared from sight. The brother remembered
his father saying “I will not stay where a man’s hat does not come back to the
ground.” He then added “both my brothers said “Amen” to that!! I
was also told that he “would not give a nickel for the whole of Greeley County”
that day.
After
they left, the family heard the one hundred and sixty acres where they lived
sold for $125.00 the next summer. I could never understand why they were
out plowing up the ground in the middle of a dust storm. It makes no
sense. My uncle once told me that the reason for purchasing a farm lay in
the fact that: “with so many boys, you better find something to keep them
busy.” And so he did!
And
earth moves on!! Aldwyn
Photo from Google's free downloads
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1 comment:
Aldwyn: I loved your piece about Greeley County in Western Kansas. It brought back stories my family told about dust bowl days. I was amazed to read the prices per bushel in those days.The kicker at the end was perfect. What else would you do with those farm boys? Please write more stories.
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