All day long, this March 14 day before the Ides of March, wind has blown, non-stop, at times with hurricane strength blows.
Around 5 this afternoon of the second Friday of the third month of 2025, tired of being housebound, I ventured out into the wind to check the mailbox, and then, if not being too vexed by the gusting wind and the dusty air, continuing on to Walmart.
In the photo documentation we are heading east on Southwest Parkway. As you can see, the outer world looks foggy.
But that is not fog. It is dust. Dirty dust blowing in from who knows where, carrying who knows what. What I do know, is the short time I was out in it was enough time to manage to irritate my eyes, causing excessive blinking.
On the way to Walmart the wind was pushing me from behind. On the way from Walmart I was heading into the wind, which at times made for some unsettling vehicle movements.
I thought, at first, I was having a vehicle malfunction, til I realized the unsettling vehicle movements were being caused by those hurricane strength gusts blowing over 70 miles per hour.
We have another day of this scheduled for tomorrow's Ides of March.
Is this how the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1920s began?
The Fosducks who quack in Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park in Fort Worth, Texas were not in quack mode today.
Instead of quacking the Fosducks were making a high pitched squeal-like noise I had not heard from ducks before.
This was not quite a pig-like squeal noise, but sort of similar.
My favorite Fosdick Lake Norman Rockwell scene was in position today, that being an older lady, who I like to think of as a granny, with her long bamboo fishing pole stuck out over the water, with her happy looking dog sitting beside her.
Every time I see the Fosdick Lake granny fishing I think of my Grandma Vera. When I was a real little kid we'd drop in on Grandma Vera's in Lynden, in Washington, a border town about 5 miles south of the Canadian border. Often we'd find a "Gone Fishing" note on Grandma's front door. My dad would then drive us to Grandma's favorite fishing holes on the Nooksack River until we found her.
I finished watching Ken Burn's Dust Bowl last night. Until watching this I did not know that Dalhart, up in the Texas panhandle, was in the heart of the Dust Bowl. I was last in Dalhart in late August of 2001. I stopped in, I think, a Burger King and had a Whopper.
When I saw photos and video of the Phoenix Dust Storm it reminded me of photos I'd seen of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
I did not know, til Stenotrophomonas pointed me to Perryton, that Texas had been hit bad by the notorious Dust Storms of the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
I recollect watching a documentary on the History Channel about the Dust Bowl with a lot of focus on what is known as Black Sunday. The photo above is of the Dust Storm of Black Sunday hitting Perryton.
Perryton is in the Texas Panhandle, northeast of Amarillo about 8 miles south of the border with Oklahoma. By March 24 of 1935 Southeastern Colorado and Western Kansas had suffered 12 days in a row of dust storms. Then at the end of the month the biggest dust storm yet blew across the plains, taking with it half the Kansas wheat crop, a quarter of the Oklahoma wheat and all the wheat in Nebraska, over 5 million acres ruined. There was a short period of calm, and then 2 weeks later, on April 12, Black Sunday struck with the biggest Dust Storm to strike the Dust Bowl.
News articles of the era reporting Black Sunday are interesting....
From the Liberal News, Liberal, Kansas, April 15, 1935
STORM CLIMAX
Southwest was Plunged into Inky Blackness Yesterday with Only Few Minutes Warning
BROUGHT TERROR
Some People Thought the End of the World was at Hand when Every Trace of Daylight was Obliterated at 4:00 p.m.
A people who during the past two weeks thought they had experienced the worst that could come in the form of dirt storms, looked on in awe and many of them in terror yesterday afternoon when...a great black bank rolled in out of the northeast and in a twinkling when it struck Liberal plunged everything into inky blackness, worse than that on any midnight, when there is at least some starlight and outlines of objects can be seen.
When the storm struck it was impossible to see one's hand before his face even two inches away. And it was several minutes before any trace of daylight whatsoever returned.
The day up to that time had been one of the few pleasant ones of the past several weeks. There had been no clouds in the sky. The temperature was unusually high and the day was one inviting people into the out of doors after day after day of dust.
Consequently many were caught out in the storm which came so suddenly that few realized it was even on the way until it was right upon them....
From the Ochiltree County Herald, Perryton, Texas, April 18, 1935
Black Blizzard Breaks All Records
Visibility Goes to Zero; Many Are Caught On Highways and on Picnic Parties
Was Worst in History
Worst Duster in History Followed Ideal Spring Day; Hit Here About Five o'clock
The worst dust storm in the memory of the oldest inhabitants of this section of the country hit Perryton at five o'clock Sunday afternoon, catching hundreds of people away from their homes, at the theatre, on the highways, or on picnic parties. The storm came up suddenly, following a perfect spring day.
In just a few minutes after the first bank appeared in the north, the fury of the black blizzard was upon us, turning the bright sunshine of a perfect day into the murky inkiness of the blackest night. Many hurried to storm cellars, remembering the cyclone of July, two years ago, which followed a similar duster.
Without question, this storm put the finishing touch of destruction to what faint hopes this area had for a wheat crop. Business houses and homes were literally filled with the fine dirt and silt driven in by this fifty mile an hour gale.
The storm started in the Dakotas and carried through with diminishing fury into Old Mexico. Borger reported the storm struck there at 6:15 p.m.; Amarillo at 7:20 p.m.; Boise City, Oklahoma, at 5:35 p.m.; and Dalhart at 5:15 p.m.
From the Amarillo Daily News, April 15, 1935
‘WORST’ DUSTER WHIPS ACROSS PANHANDLE
FARMERS PRAY FOR RAIN BUT WIND ANSWERS
NORTHER STRIKES SUNDAY TO BLOT OUT SUN, TURN DAY INTO NIGHT
SETS RECORD PACE
KANSAS GOVERNOR SAYS SOIL UNDAMAGED; STORM HITS SOUTH TEXAS
North winds whipped dust of the drought area to a new fury Sunday and old timers said the storm was the worst they'd seen. Farmers prayed through dust filmed lips for rain. A black duster—sun blotting cloud banks—raced over Southwest Kansas, the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and foggy haze spread about other parts of the southwest. Easter services at Lindsborg, Kansas, opening with a chorus singing "The Messiah" were carried on in dust-laden air.
Makes Record Trip
The black duster made the 105 miles from Boise City, Okla., to Amarillo, Texas, in 1 hour 45 minutes. Hundreds of Sunday motorists lured to the highways by 90 degrees temperatures and crystal clear skies were caught by the storm. Farmers and agricultural officials of the dust area, Southwest Kansas, Southeast Colorado, Northeastern New Mexico and the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, reported the soil was not damaged and that crops could still be made this season if it would rain. Governor Alf M. Landon of Kansas pointed out top soil ranges from 10 to 30 feet deep at many points in the area.
STORM TURNS CITY INTO TOTAL DARKNESS
Blotting out every speck of light, the worst duststorm in the history of the Panhandle covered the entire region early last night. The billowing black cloud struck Amarillo at 7:20 o'clock and visibility was zero for 12 minutes.
Gradually it cleared and Weatherman H. T. Collman said the storm would be over by morning. The black, ominous cloud rolled over the Panhandle from the north, an awe-inspiring spectacle.
Into Central Texas
The storm continued southward and had moved into Wichita Falls by 9:45 o'clock, the Associated Press reported. A large area west and southwest of Temple was reported feeling effects of the duster, which moved onward into South Texas.
Warning of the terrible storm reached Amarillo about 45 minutes before it struck. It came from a woman in Stinnett. The woman called Sheriff Bill Adams. He did not learn her name. "I feel that you people of Amarillo should know of the terrible duststorm which has struck here and probably will hit Amarillo," the woman said, "I am sitting in my room and I cannot see the telephone."
8,000 Feet High
A gentle, north breeze preceded 8,000-feet-high clouds of dust. As the midnight fog arrived, the streets were practically deserted. However, hundreds of people stood before their homes to watch the magnificent sight.
Darkness settled swiftly after the city had been enveloped in the stinking, stinging dust, carried by a 50-mile-an-hour wind. Despite closed windows and doors, the silt crept into buildings to deposit a dingy, gray film. Within two hours the dust was a quarter of an inch in thickness in homes and stores.
Reports from the north at 10:30 o'clock last night by the Santa Fe dispatcher said that the moon could be seen at Woodward, Okla., showing that the storm was clearing rapidly.
Forecast Cloudy
The weather forecast for today was partly cloudy and colder. The storm struck just before early twilight. All traffic was blocked and taxi companies reported that it was difficult to make calls for nearly 45 minutes. Street signal lights were invisible a few paces away. Lights in 10 and 12 story buildings could not be seen.
John L. McCarty, editor of the Dalhart Texan, of Dalhart, the center of the drought-stricken area of the Panhandle, called a few minutes before the storm arrived in Amarillo. The storm struck Dalhart about 85 minutes before it hit Amarillo and the city remained in total darkness for more than that length of time, he said.
Couldn't See Light
"I went outside the house during the storm and could not see a lighted window of the house three feet away." Mr. McCarty said. Borger, Perryton and other cities on the North Plains reported similar conditions, proving that the storm was becoming less vicious the farther south it moved.
Damage to the wheat crop, already half ruined by drought and wind, could not be learned last night, but several grainmen believed that the dust would cover even more of the crops.
The storm started yesterday when a high pressure area moved out of the Dakotas toward Wyoming, according to Mr. Collman. Most of the dust was from western Kansas and Oklahoma, he said.
A linotype operator, forced to stick to his post in a dusty shop appeared with a narrow strip of shoe shining cloth, lined with sheepskin, tied close to his nostrils. When dampened, he said, it made breathing normal.
A Santa Fe freight train, scheduled to depart from the South Plains about 8 o'clock, was held up nearly an hour waiting for the dust to subside. With improved visibility by 11 o'clock it was reported making good time, aided by a strong "tailwind."
I've read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I've seen the John Ford movie version several times. A couple days ago I watched The Grapes of Wrath for the first time while both living in an area of America affected by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and during a recession which is the worst America has suffered since the Great Depression.
Times were way tougher in the 1930s. People were left to fend for themselves way more than they are today. And the police could act in bad ways that are much worse than the current day abuses of the Fort Worth Gestapo and other misbehaving police.
In the 1930s there was no Internet, no cable news, no nothing to shine a light on the abuse heaped upon those forced to escape the Dust Bowl. It was an era of foreclosures, much like today. And like today, you could be ordered out of your home with bulldozers soon to follow, ala Jerry Jones, the Dallas Cowboys and the City of Arlington.
I have personally known escapees from the Dust Bowl. The parents of my best BFF, known as Big Ed, in Texas, escaped the Dust Bowl, from Ness City, Kansas in the mid 1930s. Big Ed's mom and dad had 2 kids at the time. Big Ed's dad made a makeshift camper on the back of a pick up truck. One of those old time vehicles, which started the engine using a crank in the front. I was to see that truck, still running, in the 1970's, hauling firewood in a pasture in Washington. It should have been in the Skagit County Museum.
Big Ed's mom and dad made their way west on Route 66, joining thousands of other Kansans, Okies and Texans, seeking work and a life away from the walls of lethal dust and grinding poverty.
Big Ed's mom and dad eventually made it to Yuma, Arizona. There was cotton to be picked. Ed's dad, a real hard working man, picked cotton for one day, declared it the hardest job he'd ever done, quit and headed north, towards Ely, Nevada, where they heard there was work to be found in mining camps.
Big Ed and I have driven through the same areas his mom and dad traveled through on that old truck, including Yuma and Ely. Even today, Ely is a very isolated place, at the east end of the Loneliest Road in America.
They found work at the mining camp, room at a boarding house. Ed's mom worked as the boarding house cook. Ed's mom was not a good cook. But she made really good bread and homemade noodles. I suspect those were her specialities in the boarding house.
Eventually Big Ed's mom and dad got a letter from some Kansas friends who had made it all the way to western Washington, to this valley called Skagit, near this town called Alger. They told Big Ed's mom and dad that there was logging work and land for sale, cheap.
So, the family loaded up their makeshift RV, again, and headed north, by what road, I do not know. I do know there are some high mountain passes to cross between Nevada and Washington and that the roads were not quite what they are today.
Eventually the family made it to the Promised Land. A job logging for Weyerhauser was found. Land was bought, from Weyerhauser. The makeshift RV was taken off the pickup and became the first part of what became the house Big Ed and his twin, Wally, grew up in.
The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression trauma continued to affect Big Ed's mom and dad decades later. They were very frugal. Indoor plumbing was not introduced until the 1960s. In the 1970s I told my mom that Big Ed's mom had this cool thing with big rollers to wash clothes with. My mom was appalled. Mom decided she needed a new washer and dryer. Big Ed's brother-in-law, Keith, Big Ed and I brought my mom's old washer up to Ed's mom's place. Ed's mom was not happy at first, but she soon learned to like the modern appliances. When those wore out, she bought new ones.
Years later I remember visiting Big Ed's mom and being fascinated by her tales of life in Kansas in the Roaring 20s. She was a flapper! Big Ed had no idea his mom had such a scandalous past. He'd always known her as an extremely pious, Christian mom. Not a bob-haired, short-skirted Charleston dancer.
And now, all these years later, Big Ed finds himself back in the Dust Bowl zone, during yet one more Great Depression, trying to figure out if he needs to fashion a makeshift home on the back of a pickup in order to escape this place and seek his fortune elsewhere. What an ironic conundrum.
Excellent YouTube video below about The Grapes of Wrath. And how it mirrors our current troubled times....
That's the noontime view of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth from high atop the summit of Tandy Mountain.
As you can see, we are under a cloud cover. We will not be feeling 100 degree heat today. The humidity has gone back up, so it felt hotter than the chilly 83 degrees.
I had no idea there were big dams up in Oklahoma, as in Pocatello Dam that makes Grand Lake is the longest multiple arch dam in the world. It's almost a mile long. That is one long dam. And Grand Lake has 1,300 miles of shoreline. That is a lot of shoreline. I've seen the lakes in northeast Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas from the air and was surprised by how many there were. Now I want to check out Grand Lake on the ground.
Speaking of Oklahoma, yesterday on the History Channel I watched a documentary about the Dust Bowl. I had no idea it was so horrible. The dust and drought were bad enough, but then came the plague of locusts and then jackrabbits got out of control. The whole eco-system got out of whack. I didn't know that one of the dust storms reached as far as New York City. Or that the area affected included North Texas. The dust here in Texas is one of the few things about Texas that I don't like. The west side of Washington is not dusty. Eastern Washington is much more Texas-like, dust-wise.
I forgot to mention, there is still some color on the prairie in the form of wildflowers. I saw several today whilst hiking the Tandy Hills Natural Area trails.
So, that's been my day so far this Monday in Texas, up early, in the pool for a long time, virtual trip up to a cool lake in Oklahoma and a colorful hike at noon.
