Summary

Chapter 18: Goings

In May the temperature rose to 105, the highest ever recorded in Baca County. Ike and his brother tried to cool their dugout with buckets of water. The family members tried not to touch each other because of the shocks from the static electricity. Ike’s mother was thinking of moving the girls to town. The area was in decline. Ike had gone to school in Richards but it was now just a post office. The region was one of the hardest hit in the entire Dust Bowl. Most residents would have starved without the relief supplied by the government. May 5th was named a day of prayer for rain by local churches. Rain disappeared as quickly as it had come and had no effect on the bone-dry earth.

In the summer of 1935, FDR signed the Social Security Act, launched the Works...