I came across that by accident on Amazon here in the UK last night and ordered it. I like Burns stuff particularly the way in which panning up to across stillshots he creates the impression of movement.

Just ran and added it to my DVR list and will watch it later this week.

Burns is a master.

the dust bowl. Certainly an interesting time and still quite visible in southwestern Kansas.

http://tools.bethelks.edu/mennonitelife/2001june/friesen_article.php

Just set to record the series..Thx

those pictures of the dust clouds are amazing. I'm bookmarking this thread so I can read the story later, getting ready to eat right now. Thanks for the link.

I knew Walt for a few years before I read this. He is a different sort, and after reading this I understand him a little better..I've grown to respect him more and conversed with him many times about other amazing history he holds. Conscientious objector during WW2 because of his Mennonite faith, he still served..the common belief of pacifism between Mennonites and Democrats explains why huge numbers of Mennonites are Dems...(contrary to popular belief)

I love these stories, especially the first hand accounts. I know i'll enjoy it.

Slowly pan over old photos of dust and dirt while a voiceover and a spiritual talk and play in the background, or will it be actual dirt?

TlalocW

just to discuss the fact that the irony of man made weather issues such as Sandy and the Dust Bowl and how here he was able to discuss it. I cannot find the video of the interview but it was amazing. Dave also had that Weather Channel guy on and again, they talked about Global Warming, Climate Change very openly. Dave hit it out the park on those two interviews.

I hate I missed that.

when Sandy hit and the theatre was empty. He had impromptu guests and what guests he had!

but there have been many changes in the landscape since then. FDR started the Civilian Conservation Corps who planted millions of trees and also made trees available to landowners for free. Now nearly every 1/4 section of land in these parts is bordered with tree lines of hedge (osage orange), elm, and cedar. The CRP program which is an incantation of FDR's policy of reducing agriculture production to stabilize prices and manage production leaves a lot of ground unfarmed. There are still dust storms just not anything like those during the 30's. Farmers have adapted and participate in topsoil conservation, terracing and irrigation.

Lincoln, FDR and now Obama. Men born for the times.

Some decisions like the cattle drives into the ditches were heartbreaking, but i
understand there were few alternatives.

Ever since "The Civil War", I've seen Ken Burns as someone who reaches across America and reminds us in a most original way WHAT the story is all about.

This is so timely, like so many of his things, so K&R!

He said he'd tried to sell The Civil War to cable. No one wanted it. PBS stepped in. Voila. The most amazing series about the Civil War ever made. It changed the way documentaries are made. Using real letters and testimonials, with actors reading the letters, with lots and lots of real photographs.

I don't know who made The Donner Party documentary on PBS, but that one was exceptional, as well. An amazing and horrifying story.

Learn something new daily, plus, I didn't see The Donner Party documentary, which I know I would have been struck by (probably with nightmares).

It was very moving. Real letters written by Donner Party participants, including children, read by actors. Interspersed with factual accounts by historians. Lots of real pics of Donner Party participants and others of the era.

It was a very moving documentary. Yes, the cannibalism part was sad and horrifying. But the horrible parts started way before then. It was a wagon train from the east going to California. Nightmare after nightmare happened to them along the way, and some of their own doing. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. They had to make it to a certain point before a certain date, or else the pass would become unpassable due to snow. So they took a shortcut that someone supposedly in the know had told them about. That person apparently was not in the know. That was a fatal mistake. Many had died before then, though.

It really gave you a sense of what it must have been like in those days going west in a wagon train. Esp. being a woman. The constant harshness of the bouncing. Women were pregnant, would have their periods, would have infants some of whom died. Horses died.

The documentary follows them through to the very end, including who made it eventually to California, and what happened to everyone in that wagon train. A fascinating story and documentary.

One little girl in the train later wrote to a friend in the east that if she ever came west, “never take no cutofs and hury along as fast as you can.” I looked it up. This doc. was part of "The American Experience" PBS series.

and it was, indeed, fascinating and haunting. It was actually produced by Ric Burns, Ken's brother. I watch several of Ken and Rick Burns' documentaries over and over again - "The West", "The Shakers", "Jazz", etc. They have perfected the art of the documentary.

Their documentaries really make me feel as if I were there. I can imagine being one of the participants. I tell the screen, "No...don't go that way!" You know what's going to happen. But of course, they go that way, anyway.

I haven't seen those other documentaries. Well, I saw part of Jazz, but it didn't interest me that much. Maybe it was what was being covered in that part.

probably wouldn't have turned to the tv on and would have missed it.

history. During the 1930's Oklahoma had a huge Socialist movement. Oklahoma was deeply Democratic until the mid-sixties.
And two years ago was the first time the the Legislature had more Republicans than Democrats... ever, since statehood.

It took until 1980 for Oklahoma to gain back the population of 1930 ( give or take a year or two)

One more thing. The Eastern half Oklahoma was not really a part of the dust bowl. I'm sure many know this but Sallisaw, the setting for Grapes of Wrath is and was hilly and green. Of course there were many poor people there and I'm sure some probably migrated west.

was a huge supporter of FDR.

Amazing Race, Dexter, Walking/Talking Dead, Family Guy, American Dad, Dexter repeat...

I'll have to blow off the dust bowl for tonite.
but it's on a number of times between now and wednesday.

Idealy it woulld start after WW1 and go through the Roarin 20's bubble of land and stock speculation then end at WW2. I have a feeling that somebody up at the top isnt going to sponsor that. After all, it was called the REPUBLICAN Depression for a long time.

my great grand parents lived through this (in the texas/oklahoma panhandle area) and stayed.

My grandmother witnessed this, and I heard story after story
of dust storm and hard ship and never ending hard work.

I quote her..."if not for the ingenuity and genius of my mother, we
would have never survived"...
Apparently, my great grandmother knew how to raise chickens and would incubate
the chickens in the basement, and they would move the adult chickens to the basement
so they would survive the dust storms. And they would all - all 8 kids, two parents and
the chickens, would be in the basement till the storms passed. Sometimes she said all they had to
eat was boiled eggs...sometimes for days at at time.

I don't know how they survived it, but they did.

I hope we don't have to relive your grandmother's history.

that no matter now hard things might get now...
I'll never have to have a baby in a sod dugout like my great grandmother did.

She had her first baby in Texas, where they were sharecropping....while they were waiting for their first
crop to grow on the other side of the border in Oklahoma (no man's land, at the time) at their claim.
They had to send for the doctor by horseback, and by the time the doctor came, the baby had already been born.
She had done it all by herself.

aslo...
My grandmother witnessed them shooting the cattle like the show just talked about.

I love so much what you point out: "I'll never have to have a baby in a sod dugout." Blessings for sure; your great-grandmother was a hero in every sense of the word. I can't even imagine that kind of fortitude...doing it all on her own. What an amazing woman!

The sections where the (now elderly) children of the time recounted the cattle slaughter were so vivid. Mostly because it obviously made such a mark on them, so that even today - all these years later - they are still brought to tears talking about it. It does not seem that time has lessened that pain for them; it was so immediate and real, their remembrances. I get chills thinking about it.

All in all, I found it a very moving discussion of how/why it all happened, as well as the very tragic human consequences that resulted. As hard as it can be to watch at times, I recommend it. I'll watch the rest for sure.

a small mini-biography
about her life growing up...
it was just for family....

I'm so glad she did that.

There were so many wonderful stories.
Every thing they said in the movie, sounded just like my grandmother telling me
about her growing up days.

Even some of the stories were familiar....I'm sure it was a shared experience by
all in the dust bowl.

You are so lucky to have that kind of honest, straight-up, "right-there" history.

I'm my family's genealogist in the third generation. My people are/were tight-lipped and it's an uphill struggle. I respect and admire anyone who tells the real truth to those who come after.

Much love to you, MrsBrady. May your family history continue to guide you. You come from amazing people, and I am sure you are pretty cool yourself. I thank you for sharing your insights.

growing so what did the people who remained us to feed chickens?

they must have had enough grain for the chickens...

I think they had grain and flour that they must have purchased...
even thought they had nothing to feed the cattle or when no cattle were left.

that's the only thing that I can figure...

I also I wonder if they also didn't add back the egg shells too...
they wasted nothing, from what I understand.

I don't really know...that's my best guess.

nearly anything - like small wild grains that dry out, scraps from the kitchen like potato peelings ( not that there were many ) and even, sadly, each other.

They could subsist on dried up crops, too where humans could not.

as it sounded like (overabundance in the grain mills), chickens could definitely thrive on that. Plus their natural scratching for grubs and other insects, as someone downthread mentioned.

Set the DVR

To know what we should also be thankful for.

We really need to know the land we live on, to respect it, to treat it well, and to benefit from it.

And we can learn a great deal from those pioneers who risked it all.

Horrible story.

What tough resilient people lived in our country in those days.

Love Ken Burns films.

crash and burn, and of course asshole republicans leading the way. The so-called rugged individuals always end up costing the rest of us a fortune in money, sweat and blood itself.

The rabbit story and the cattle story . . . . . unimaginable.

but she witnessed the cattle being shot...

and she said they and the neighbors all came and helped each butcher and can the meat
that had been shot...so that they would have something to eat.

All the towns/cities they are mentioning are near where my grandmother and her family were
in Texas/Oklahoma panhandles.

Sparkly's mother's family is from eastern Oklahoma. They were all there during that period, but apparently they never had to deal with it like your family did.

"into town" which was luckily only 8 miles away...

but they could not afford to feed everyone...so at least two of
my grandmother's older high school aged siblings moved
in with other families and worked for room and board while
they were going to high school.

the WPA employed my great grandfather at some point...building park benches,
grave yard entrances, planting trees, etc...
he and others planed some of the first trees along hwy 83. The trees are still there.

my grandmother apparently was sick a lot.
she was born in 23 and was young when all this was going on.

Passed down from generation to generation. I hope they are never forgotten.

Unrelenting misery, I would never have survived it.

The brothers telling the story of the death of their baby sister that they loved so much. Just breaks your heart.

I take so much for granted today.

Was unbelievably awful. And i teared up at the older gentleman with the eyepatch talking about the death of his baby sister.

and not being able to save their little calves.

Just finished the first two hours. A gut-wrenching true story. Thanks so much for the reminder today. Will be watching faithfully tomorrow.

Might have driven me mad if I'd had to endure that.

beds, tables, dishes... that would have driven me crazy in a few weeks. To do it for years is unthinkable.

Also, lessons about the important role of government in solving problems.

The eyewitness accounts are amazing; sometimes gut wrenching but an informative window to the past. We loved it and plan to watch Part 2 tomorrow night.

After watching this tonight, I regret not listening as I should have. No one ever kept track of the related deaths from this thing...at least where we lived they didn't. I don't think we will ever know the cost in lives.

Incredible story.

am recording Part 2 tonight. I'll have to watch that part tomorrow.

One of the best programs I've seen in a long time. I cannot imagine suffering the way those people had to. Makes you very grateful for what you have no matter how much or how little. I cried more than once while watching.

Thanks for the heads-up, EmeraldCityGrl.