Jack's Flagpole US and Texas Flags - Long May They Wave!
Welcome To Jack's Shifting Sands
My Early Years
A reminder of the Dust Bowl in Texas during the early 1930s... Those are dust clouds, not rain clouds!
See the actual dust bowl: Movie
You can Restart the Music after the Movie

Photo and movie Courtesy of: http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html
Dust Bowl in Texas early 1930s
Anyone know where and when this picture was taken?  I think it was in Oklahoma.  Look at how things have changed during my lifetime!

From V. Whitney: I think I have identified the railroad station in your pictures. It is Wapanuka. To locate it on a map, it is NE of Ardmore, Oklahoma and not far from the Texas-Oklahoma border. Ardmore is now served from Oklahoma City to Dallas by the Amtrak railroad. Not much left of the town of Wapanuka... a few convenience stores, a small bank, etc. It is one of my stopping on places when I travel to Eastern Oklahoma to see my folks.
Anyone know where and when this picture was taken?
Left to right: Back row: Grandfather Whitehead, Jim Owen, Grandfather Owen Second row: Grandmother Whitehead and Grandmother Owen.  Front row: Jack Owen, Odell Owen and Lorene Owen. Grandparents & Children
Picture is my mother and father on their wedding day, November 11,1918 my mother and father on their wedding day
In the picture to the right, my father is holding my sister, my mother is holding me, and my older brother, Jim, is standing in front. Odell was not born yet. I was born in Oklahoma, but my family moved to West Texas when I was one month old.  My father farmed at Northfield, Texas between Childress and Matador, Texas.  We left West Texas at about the start of the "dust Bowl" days in 1933. The Owen Family in about 1925
The four Owen children.  Jim is in back; Lorene is on the left: Jack is on the right, and Odell is in the swing.  The picture was taken in 1927. The Owen Kids in 1927

My father is using a "go devil" to cut the weed roots.  The go devil has sweep blades and twin runners that run on each side of the cotton or other crop.  As you  can see, my dad  can read a newspaper while working.  The mules knew what to do!

 My father is using a "go devil"

This is a picture of the Northfield, Texas School.  There is no longer a need for a school in that area because there are so few children living there. As you will notice, the School District was so poor that they could not replace broken windows. (Picture taken about 1929)

 Northfield, Texas School

My brother, Odell, is first on left second row; I am second on left fourth row; my sister, Lorene, is the first girl on right top row.  My older brother, Jim, was already in High School.  Not all the children are barefooted by choice.  These were the lean days of the "Great Depression". Glover, Oklahoma School picture taken about 1935.  We moved to Oklahoma in 1933.  All of our possessions were moved in a stake bed pickup truck owned by a neighbor.

 Glover, Oklahoma School picture taken about 1935
We moved to Edinburg, Texas in 1937.  Again, all our possessions fit in a stake bed pickup, but this time we owned the pickup!  My father is in the 1934 Chevrolet pickup. My father in a 1934 Chevrolet pickup

The first nine years of my life was spent in Northfield, TX, about 33 miles from Matador, TX.  This picture was taken in 1994. Not much change to the town since we moved in 1933. The dog crossing the street even looks like the dog I remember from 1933!

 Matador, TX