the good old days

Rain for the Earth 1937

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The film, while a bit melodramatic in places, is a bleak reminder of the dangers that are brought by drought. The dust storms that ravaged the country in the 1930’s were vicious. Hearing about it is one thing. Actually watching it is another. The lovely pastoral scenes you normally associate with farms — green crops, cheerful children, fat animals — are starkly contrasted here by dessicated soil, worthless weeds, endless clouds of blowing grit, and abandoned barns and equipment.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film, which deals with the attempted solution of irrigation, doesn’t seem to be available on archive.org — so you’re left with just images of how bad your environment can become, and no reassurance that 1937 America managed to somehow get through.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 2:22 pm and is filed under conservation & environment, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.