Being a stamp collector, I look at old postcards, not for the cards but for the stamps affixed to them. A year or so ago, I found a bunch of cards in a Harrow antique store to/from Mrs. W. Henderson of Eva Oklahoma. Her first name was Caroline. For some reason this sounded familiar to me and I googled her. She is Caroline Henderson, teacher, mother, farmer and writer. She lived from 1877 to 1966. She wrote articles in different publications. She wrote about farm life. During the drought, dust storms and privation she was also published in The Atlantic Monthly.
Yesterday I went antiquing along Wyandotte St. E. here in Windsor. I walked into a backroom of one store and found about 8 issues of the Atlantic. Now this journal has been publishing since 1857, one hundred and fifty one years! Of the 8 issues in stock of the over 1800 they've published, I actually found the May 1936 that carried Caroline's "Letters from the Dust Bowl!" This kind of thing always happens to me. I'm very lucky in many ways! (Not the lottery kind of way but lucky none the less!) A wonderful addition to my postcard collection.
Her letters have been recently published in a new book, (the one pictured,)and I plan to order it also. The one postcard I have scanned mentions that they have been "putting everything in order... but it is no purpose though there has been plenty of wind. I am still hoarding about a gallon of water for wetting out throats. Fortunately it is warmer and the cattle for the present can drink from the snow water pools."
4 comments:
oddly enough, I found that very interesting : )
Implying that some other post are NOT interesting? hmmmm? ;)
How exciting to find the post cards! I am reading "Letters" now, and although C.H. is a wonderful, evocative writer, it is dreary reading: drought, dust, drought, dust -- of course those were terrible times. It is unrealistic to expect that anyone could survive decades of disaster and bone bending toil and extreme hardship without their soul and their temperament being scarred and fissured in much the way the wind scarred the tilled prairie. But wouldn't that make nicer, more comfortable reading? Also reading "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan and "Children of the Dust Bowl" and have re-read "The Grapes of Wrath" for the fifth or sixth time. It all makes me feel a little less complacent and a little less secure in the excessive good fortune our generation enjoys. It reminds you that anything could happen at any time. Anyway, enjoyed reading about your exciting find! Liz from OKC, OK
Thank you so much for stopping in and for leaving a comment! Yes, it is tiresome reading, however, she was worn out by the hard life. Life was nothing but tiresome then.
My fear is the current financial situation is leading us there ... again!
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