Readers Remember

After a childhood spent living in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, I can still taste the grit of the dust storms that rolled into eastern Kansas. If the wind was from the south, the dust was red as it blew up from Oklahoma. My father, who worked for a mortgage company, would often come home in tears after facing farmers who had to be told that their loans were being foreclosed. Much of the land was eroded and no longer tillable.

There is still visible evidence of the dust storm era. As you drive some of the highways through Kansas, you can see belts of trees that were planted to curtail the dust blowing onto the roads. It was reported that this was Eleanor Roosevelt’s idea.

WILLIAM H. SMITH

Palm Desert

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One of my fond memories was in 1950. I was 5 years old. We had left our war-ravaged country for a new life in America. Our ship was heading into New York Harbor. My father woke us very early that morning. I remember he was so excited. He wanted to show us the “nice lady” who stood there to welcome our arrival.

I can still recall thinking that Americans must be such nice people. There, in all its magnificence, was the Statue of Liberty, and I thought they had placed her there just for our family to see.

MARIA BLANCO-SHORE

San Diego

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In October 1929, I was 17 and in my first semester at UC Berkeley. When we first heard that the stock market crashed, it seemed like a “back East” issue. We didn’t think it would affect us. But then my scholarship money was lost.

LOVERNE W. BROWN

San Diego