The Dirty Days
A Young Girl’s Journey to and from the Oklahoma Dust Bowl
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
As the dust engulfed us, I recalled that before we left Arkansas, Daddy had casually told us that Oklahoma had seen a number of dust storms that late winter and early spring. But there was nothing casual about the nature of this particular dust storm, nor any of the others we were destined to experience in the years to come. Before long the dust storm made me cough; Daddy was coughing, too. Mother, blinking her eyes from the dirt all around us in the air, nervously cautioned, “We seem to be the only vehicle on the road.” “I know it,” Daddy acknowledged. “I can’t tell the road from the ditch. I saw a little old gas station about ten miles back with a cafe. Did y’all see it a little bit this side of some dinky burg of a town? A little ways back?” Mother said she’d noticed, and Daddy said he was going to turn the truck around and go back. Turning the truck around in the blinding dust without going into the ditch wasn’t easy. But Daddy did the job well, and we soon were glad to be rolling with the wind instead of against it.
Formats
Book Details
Recognition Programs
About the Book
It is 1933. As a beat-up truck travels down a road away from Arkansas, seven-year-old Molly May Dowden can only hope a better future awaits her parents in Thistleway, Oklahoma.They have no idea of what is about to come.
With their money safely tucked away in a mattress, the Dowdens feel hopeful as they pass through Oklahoma City. But their hopes for an improved life disintegrate a hundred miles further west when a dust storm swirls dangerously around their truck. Forced to take shelter inside a dingy cafe with a band of quirky strangers, the Dowdens soon realize that life in Oklahoma may not be as easy as they had hoped. After the family finally settles in their two-room workers’ shanty, one hardship piles up after another as they battle spider bites, rancid water, strange rashes, loneliness, and death. Left with no choice but to bravely persevere through the never-ending drought and dust, Molly and her family soon discover a fortitude they never knew they had.
In this historical tale based on true events, a young girl embarks on a coming-of-age journey where she and her loved ones must nobly fight to survive the Great Depression and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl.
About the Author
Norma Welty grew up during the Great Depression and left the Oklahoma Dust Bowl after high school. She settled in western Wisconsin and taught high school English for twenty-one years. At retirement, she moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, where she still lives today with her equally ancient husband. This is her debut novel.