Memories of the Dust Bowl Eyewitness
Having many problems caused by these storms is so hard to face. We suffer so many disasters due to the storms. My surroundings are the most affected and worst views due to the damages and our surroundings affecting our health. This even causes homes to be buried with the black blizzards, even the vehicles engines get ruined. As a family we are getting our health affected because of the food we are living from. We can’t even cook a meal without the dust being in it, and we realize that once we drink water we can taste the dust. It was hard to prevent that from spreading in our food and I hated to see that my family would consume the dirt, but that’s how it was because the storms would get worse.
Trying to leave the house we find it complicated, because the front doors are blocked with sand, but find a way to get out when we have to, and that’s by climbing out the window. We try as a family to find a solution to these problems, and I am grateful for the strong family I have because after all this happening we stayed strong and went through it all. As a farmer I also face many problems. One problem is my land being destroyed by the static electricity due to the recent sand storms. It’s so hard not to give up not only as a family member , but also as a farmer. Also along with other farmers we were facing another disaster which is happening because of homesteading starting on the Great Plains, our plows had uprooted the wild grasses that held the soil moisture. We we all figuring out a way to get out of this problem to prevent the soil from getting affected. Some farmers find the solution to this problem to be to just leave their fields uncultivated and not try anymore.
Crop prices dropping is another problem we are facing, but as a solution other farmers thought maybe growing out the most things in our lands even if prices are dropping that can still benefit us with more money if we have a variety of other things grown out on them. Families were packing and leaving to look for a better work chance somewhere else, like moving to the west, where they wouldn’t suffer from these disasters and have their lives at risk. Many of us including animals were having their lives at risk, getting affected by the dust and making them get suffocated and die from it. That also caused peoples lungs to get filled with dust but also injuring our eyes.
As soon as we all see that a storm is about to hit we begin to run to get covered or it would sting our skin and eyes. People even spit out clots of dirt, all this caused pneumonia. Which the only way to get cured was from what people heard, and it was skunk grease This life is so complicated but we know that moving away doesn’t solve this or make a difference, we all just need to find solutions to these problems. All this is how we live our days , what we go through, and what we face while the dust bowl lasts, and it sure isn’t easy living with this. But in the end having the strong family I have helps me find a way to keep them away from the bad consequences and results that are happening trying to affect our lives.
