Dust Bowl 2008

Was Steinbeck writing the plot line of my weekend? I realize my own personal dust bowl from Saturday's demolition derby does not make me an honorary member of the Joad family, but I feel like I have just a smidgen of empathy for all those families driven batty by the dust, the dust, the dust that's everywhere.


As unsettled as I was with all of the dust on Saturday, everything was settled on Sunday as I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned some more. After the dust cleared, I was checking out the now partially exposed kitchen floor and I found something Steinbeck-ish. On top of the floors under the old cabinets were newspapers. I'm not exactly sure why these clippings were laying on the floor, but it was such an unexpected find under the pile of plaster. Sadly, I can't find any trace of the date on these papers. But the advertisement for a sale on "Summer Sport (?) Dresses and Evening Dresses regularly for $25.00" tells me that these weren't laid in the age of Vera Wang bridesmaid dresses... at least I didn't get mine for $25.00.

Note to self: When your house talks to you, make sure you listen. Finding these relics from the past have got me thinking about the story of my house and the chapter I'm adding to it. I think I'm going to assemble a "time capsule" to hide behind the wall that I'll (and when I say I, I mean the Man of Iron and I) will be drywalling on Friday. Maybe I'll include Macy's weekly pullout from the paper to show how times have changed using the little known economic evening dress indicator.