It's been fall in Southern Alberta for the last three months. I can count the cold days on a hand and three days where it snowed. There's going to be a drought the likes of which have never been seen.
I have family who farmed in Southwest Kansas from before the Dust Bowl up through the 70s, and the drought of the 50s was barely a footnote to them because of center pivot irrigation.
ooooh. My WIP is set in 1952 texas, and I stumbled across the drought bc I was researching which counties in Texas were dry (as in you couldn't buy alcohol). The drought was one of the results until I refined my terms. It was so devastating. (I'll probably work it into the larger series somehow)
I only know about this drought because it was happening while my dad grew up in rural southwest-central Texas and was hugely formative for him. There was also a horrific flood that came right in the middle (1955) and killed some people he knew!
Right? I'm from texas, but not rural texas, so I'd never heard of it! It was apparently one of the driving forces to push small farmers out of farming, and allowed big ag to then take over. Link below (link card wouldn't add)
www.npr.org/2012/07/07/1....
Nice! Glad to hear it. Am revising meat book for publication. Wanted to do a 100% makeover but I’m also writing another book. So meat book gets a “gentle” revision w LOTS of footnotes pointing to new research like yours.
