Next Saturday, April 14, 2007, will mark the 72nd anniversary of "Black Sunday", the climax of the Dust Bowl and one of the most storied events of that era, memorialized both in film and in song. As Woody would write years later,

"The churches was jammed and the churches was packed

And that dusty old dust storm blowed so black

That the preacher could not read a word of his text,

So he folded his specs, took up the collection, said

So Long, it's been good ta know yuh

So Long, it's been good ta know yuh

So Long, it's been good ta know yuh

This dusty ol' dust is a-gettin' my home

And I've gotta be drifting along"

                                    (Woody Guthrie "So Long It's Been Good ta Know Ya")

Woody would write several of his ballads around that event, remarking in "Dust Storm Disaster" that "We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom".

So as we sit shivering in the cold, a-waiting whatever this winter storm has to offer (no snow here yet beyond a few flakes), I have been wondering if April 14 will one day be remembered as the anniversary of the Blizzard of '07.

Man, I hope not!