"As the national stimulus package makes it way through Congress, I wonder where it all will end.

With the current situation in mind, I made the mistake of doing a little reading about the Great Depression. Are there similarities? Mostly, what I learned is that the Great Depression was depressing.

As depressing as it was, though, some good policies did come out of the Great Depression. Some farming practices got changed for the better, for example.

The weather gods must have been frowning in the 1930s because they turned on us at the absolute worst time for our economy. Days and days went by with no rain. The result was devastating, I could see as I thumbed through picture after picture. The pictures showed broken farm equipment, skeletons of big wagons, abandoned and dilapidated houses. The shifting sands made portions of the Great Plains look a lot like Death Valley.

It is something I hope I never see."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD: Too close for comfort to the Depression (The Grand Forks Herald 2/11)

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