The Worst Hard Time

Life in the Dirty Thirties was no picnic. In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan retells the stories of several individuals who not only survived the Dust Bowl, but have been scarred physically and emotionally by it. Reading these first-hand accounts makes you appreciate all that you have, as in a freak moment, it could all be gone. One day, you're earning $2 a bushel of wheat, the next, 20¢. Egan writes about those who had been told to move westward for their health, to the untouched, open air of the plains. Living in irony once the dusters began and they inhaled gritty, dry, dusty air. The people of the plains were being buried alive. I am terrified at the thought of breathing in dirt on a constant basis, with no possibilty of escape. Many didn't leave, they didn't know where to go or didn't have the money to get there. It's amazing how the economy can recover from an event like the Depression, but what's more incredible is how we were able to restore the land so many thought was gone for good after the devastation created by the dusters of the late '30s.