QUALITY HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Primary Source: FROM the time Secondary Source: ABOUT the time Quality Historical Research: requires a VARIETY of BOTH primary and secondary sources

Quality Historical Research: The Dust Bowl Name_____________________ Directions: As you see, hear, and read about the Dust bowl, fill in this chart as completely as possible. CAUSES—Why did the Dust Bowl happen? DESCRIPTION--What and where was the Dust Bowl? EFFECTS--How did the Dust Bowl affect people? ACTIONS--What did people do because of the Dust Bowl?

PHOTOGRAPHS

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ORAL HISTORIES – Personal Memories

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SONGS By Woody Guthrie From Dust Bowl Ballads

“TALKING DUST BOWL” by Woodie Guthrie, 1940 Back in Nineteen Twenty-Seven, I had a little farm and I called that heaven. Well, the prices up and the rain come down, And I hauled my crops all into town -- I got the money, bought clothes and groceries, Fed the kids, and raised a family. Rain quit and the wind got high, And the black ol' dust storm filled the sky. And I swapped my farm for a Ford machine, And I poured it full of this gas-i-line -- And I started, rockin' an' a-rollin', Over the mountains, out towards the old Peach Bowl. Way up yonder on a mountain road, I had a hot motor and a heavy load, I's a-goin' pretty fast, there wasn't even stoppin', A-bouncin' up and down, like popcorn poppin' -- Had a breakdown, sort of a nervous bustdown of some kind, There was a feller there, a mechanic feller, Said it was en-gine trouble.

Way up yonder on a mountain curve, It's way up yonder in the piney wood, An' I give that rollin' Ford a shove, An' I's a-gonna coast as far as I could -- Commence coastin', pickin' up speed, Was a hairpin turn, I didn't make it. Man alive, I'm a-tellin' you, The fiddles and the guitars really flew. That Ford took off like a flying squirrel An' it flew halfway around the world -- Scattered wives and childrens All over the side of that mountain. We got out to the West Coast broke, So dad-gum hungry I thought I'd croak, An' I bummed up a spud or two, An' my wife fixed up a tater stew -- We poured the kids full of it, Mighty thin stew, though, You could read a magazine right through it. Always have figured That if it'd been just a little bit thinner, Some of these here politicians Coulda seen through it.

“DUST BOWL BLUES” by Woodie Guthrie (1940) I just blowed in, and I got them dust bowl blues, I just blowed in, and I got them dust bowl blues, I just blowed in, and I'll blow back out again. I guess you've heard about ev'ry kind of blues, I guess you've heard about ev'ry kind of blues, But when the dust gets high, you can't even see the sky. I've seen the dust so black that I couldn't see a thing, I've seen the dust so black that I couldn't see a thing, And the wind so cold, boy, it nearly cut your water off. I seen the wind so high that it blowed my fences down, I've seen the wind so high that it blowed my fences down, Buried my tractor six feet underground. Well, it turned my farm into a pile of sand, Yes, it turned my farm into a pile of sand, I had to hit that road with a bottle in my hand. I spent ten years down in that old dust bowl, I spent ten years down in that old dust bowl, When you get that dust pneumony, boy, it's time to go.

I had a gal, and she was young and sweet, I had a gal, and she was young and sweet, But a dust storm buried her sixteen hundred feet. She was a good gal, long, tall and stout, Yes, she was a good gal, long, tall and stout, I had to get a steam shovel just to dig my darlin' out. These dusty blues are the dustiest ones I know, These dusty blues are the dustiest ones I know, Buried head over heels in the black old dust, I had to pack up and go. An' I just blowed in, an' I'll soon blow out again.

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“ DUST BOWL ” Reading Add to charts and cross off any incorrect information.

Dust Bowl Video Clip *** If time***

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“ EXIT SLIP ” Complete the following short definition in your notebook: The Dust Bowl was...