Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Something new

Did anything surprise you in "The Worst Hard Time"? Anything you hadn't heard about the Dust Bowl before?
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5 comments:

Ben said...

I'd say the biggest surprises were the static electricity and the grasshoppers. I had never heard about the static electricity before, and it was so incredible to read the descriptions of it. I had heard about the grasshoppers before, but the descriptions were so sad (because they were just getting back some hope) and terrifying. (I'm afraid of one grasshopper, let alone millions!)

11:11 AM, September 01, 2010
Erin said...

I was surprised by those things, too. And I was surprised to learn that a majority of the Dust Bowl residents stayed in their homesteads. I had thought most people migrated elsewhere and only a small percentage remained. I suppose that's because my thoughts about that time were so influenced by "The Grapes of Wrath," and as Egan wrote, the stories of those who stayed are the "untold" stories.

11:06 AM, September 02, 2010
kc said...

I wasn't aware that all those townfolk regularly lined up with clubs to gleefully slaughter thousands of rabbits. That so many — or any! — people found amusement in that shocked and horrified me.

12:11 PM, September 02, 2010
Ben said...

Yes, the rabbits -- that was horrific.

2:03 PM, September 02, 2010
cl said...

Erin, this was a great pick. Actually, it made me realize how ignorant I was about a period of American history that had such a huge impact on Kansas. For example, I wouldn't have been able to explain why there's so much German ancestry here, though I knew that to be the case. Or how WWI elevated and then killed wheat prices and so on.

I thought Egan did a fine job showing how the initial consequences of the Depression (the market crash, etc.) would have seen very removed, a problem for rich city folks, yet slowly crept its way into the Heartland.

Ben, ditto on the static. And I think I recall the grasshoppers from the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, of all things, but the black widows! Tarantulas! Eeek! Yes, living under those circumstances would certainly make you hardy.

1:31 PM, September 08, 2010

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