Dust bowl families were loyal to the plains, but years of bad crops, economic depression, insects, heat, and wind gave some of them little choice but to look for work elsewhere. Even a year of rain and a good harvest could not make up for the monetary loss that many had taken.

Others realized that their dreams were forever beyond reach. Young people who had once planned to go to college saw savings vanish and the opportunity to study disappear while they worked the unprofitable land. Middle-aged couples relinquished plans for a more comfortable home and an inheritance for their children. Old people gave up their homes, turned to public relief (welfare), or resigned themselves to being a burden on their children. Lawrence Svobida, a Kansas wheat farmer, expressed their despair: "My dreams and ambitions had been flouted by nature, and my shattered ideals seemed gone...