Cold Saturday morning...

 Brrr! It's 59 outside with snow in the forecast for next week!

In Texas!!! ;-)

One of my #WIP stories takes place in the Panhandle of Texas near Levelland where I was born. I remember those hot, dusty summer days that seemed to last forever. Mom kicked us out of the house right after a bowl of thick, pasty oatmeal made the pressure cooker pot. No sugar. No milk. Just hot sticky oats, boiled into a grey mush. Yum...

"Don't get into trouble and stay out of the back lot!" she would yell as we tore out the back screen door. Sure, what possible trouble could we get into on a 4 acre lot with huge elm trees, a wash house, water well shed and a rickety old horse barn in the back of the lot? ;-)

Clods were our favorite weapon, right after 'stickery weeds' and cottonwood stick swords. Mom went through a whole big bottle of Mercurochrome and several boxes of band aids every summer. Yes, Mercurochrome. The stuff that was banned in the late 90s because it contains mercury. And it stung like blue blazes!

My story is set in the early 1900s, when land in the Panhandle was dirt cheap (pun intended) and the prairie 'Dust Bowl' era was ending. The Great Drought that started in the 1930s finally ended and soil conservation steps helped the land heal at last. How would you like to look out your back door and see this coming?

It centers around a family struggling to scratch a living from the soil with their last few dollars invested in the land. A few livestock, a used tractor and a small farm house is all they have.

We forget today how hard the previous generations had it here in America. Our prosperity is a direct result of their hard work and suffering. Families around the World had it just as bad if not worse that Americans, I know, I read history books. We would all do well to remember all of them, for our daily lives are infinitely better than theirs because they strove to make it that way.

Writing about the Dust Bowl era has given me a new respect for my grandparents and great grandparents and all of their families.

I hope your 2025 provides you with opportunities to live life to the fullest and share what you have with those who have less.