Dirty Thirties

Join us in April as Writer’s Zen celebrates the world of historical fiction, blogging along with the A to Z Blog Challenge. We’ll be posting our way through the alphabet, a letter at a time – every day except Sunday.

If you like historical fiction, there are links at the end where you can follow Pages of the Past on Facebook or sign up for the weekly newsletter. Each week we feature an article about writing historical fiction, spotlight a historical fiction author, and share great reads in a variety of time periods. There are also occasional short story contests and other fun highlights.

Today, introduce the letter D.

1930s1

Dirty Thirties

Do you find that you’re fascinated with certain periods of time? Are there eras that become your favorites? Are there certain years that beckon to you, calling you to revel in the past?

That’s the 1930’s for me. I don’t know why. There’s something about the plight of America, struggling through the Great Depression that tugs on my heartstrings. I see the pictures that document the difficulties they dealt with. I cringe when I see the massive dust storms that devastated so much – enough so that the decade is frequently called the ‘Dirty Thirties’.

Maybe it was reading Grapes of Wrath at an early age that fueled my fascination with the lives of people living through that decade. Maybe it’s because my parents were born then; my dad in 1934 and my mom in 1936. Maybe it’s all the stories I heard growing up, about their childhood and early days.

And then, as an adult many years later, the quilt squares I found in a yard sale, from Athelstan, Iowa, were stitched in 1934. These quilt squares quickly worked their way into my heart. Through them, I discovered new friends. I became attached to women from the past that I’d never met. They’re back home now, in the Taylor County Historical Museum in Bedford, Iowa. A small piece of my heart hangs next to each of the 30 squares displayed in the museum.

QS in museum