January 16, 2021. Playa Royale, Mexico. The Dust Bowl.

Today I stumbled on a documentary about The Dust Bowl. The program was excellent with old pictures of the plains and the dust and the people. The times were difficult. Many people were interviewed who were children during the thirtees. My mother called it the Dirty Thirtees. She was born in 1902 and was a Salvation Army Officer, stationed on the prairies so she knew how difficult it was, although the worst drought and dust storms were furthur south. First came the drought. Next came the wind followed by the dust. During the show I saw pictures of a huge black cloud, covering 200 miles wide and travelling at 40 miles an hour. No wonder people moved to California. The fine dust managed to get into every home, sometimes to a foot deep. A man was interviewed after 2020. He commented that 2020 was the worst year in the history of the US. When I heared him, I womdered if he had never studied history. My immediate thought was the time of the Civil War. And how about the Great Wars? Even the pandemic of 1918 and 19. Surely all those years were more difficult than 2020. Now that I watched The Dust Bowl, this year of 2020 does not even come close to the distress and difficulty experienced by many Americans. I suppose most of the people who were affected were living in the plains but even the east received dust storms. When dealing with difficulty, a bit of knowledge is a good thing to keep everything in perspective and to keep an even keel. The documentary I watched today was a good reminder of past troubles...and of future success of the people.