It's hard to imagine what life was like during the Dust Bowl. Imagine waking up in the morning to find an outline of dust in the shape of your head on your pillows. Blowing dust felt as if sandpaper was being rubbed on your skin. Your ears and noses were plugged with dirt, and grit ground between your teeth.
During the worst of the dust storms, people could not see their hands in front of their face, even inside their own homes. Lighting a lamp didn't help. The sun disappeared, turning the middle of the day to midnight. People became so covered in dust, even indoors, that the simple act of moving an arm caused dust to fall from their sleeves. The blowing dust stripped paint from cars and houses, broke windows and blinded cattle. Drivers had to honk their horns as they inched along the highway. Trains derailed in the dust and darkness.
To survive it, people turned to humor. Have you heard the joke about the prairie dog that dug his hole 6 feet in the air? Or the story about the man who sandblasted his dishes clean by holding them near the keyhole of his door? And then there was the tale of Lady Godiva. People joked that if she rode through town during a dust storm, even her horse wouldn't be able to see her.
Sources:
Trials and Triumphs: a Colorado portrait of the Great Depression, Stephen J. Leonard
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan
A Place Called Baca, Ike Osteen
Colorado Heritage, Winter 1994
