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  • Walter E. Dandy Letter 07/20/1928

    We are now nearing El Paso, after a delightfully cool night. After we went to sleep and instead of being dust covered this morning, the air was clean and brisk. A blanket was necessary to keep warm. Yesterday was quite hot, but it was dry and wasn’t intolerable like the humid heat of the East. The wheat fields were so beautiful. Most of them have been cut, but a few were still untouched. They have had lots of rain, through Kansas and it looked a beautiful prosperous country, even though it is flat. It’s probably the best year they have had for a long time.

    The vast desert this morning is in striking contrast! Everything is brown with no vegetation. But a wonderful dry climate and little shacks scattered about far apart where people are seeking health. We are in a big valley skirted by gray hills leading up to the mountains. We are a mile high. Tell my boy they now have machines which cut and thresh the wheat at the same time, instead of stocking it and waiting for the thresher. They are working away until dark. At the little stations en route, little boys would drive up the scales with their long load of wheat to be weighed and sold at the cooperative stations. Walter’s farmer mother can explain all this to him.

    I finished the tic article last night after a hard day’s work. And I got 11 hours of sleep last night, so I feel much refreshed.

    We have just passed a beautiful little oasis, Alama Gorda, where trees grow; fruit is abundant. It is a striking example of the accomplishments of irrigation. On every side is the desert.

    We will be in El Paso at 10:30 AM and I hope to leave tonight, reaching Baltimore Monday noon - perhaps before you get this letter. I hope my little trio are happy and having dry weather. That seems about the greatest item in our welfare now, doesn’t it? Don’t work too hard. I want my little girl to have plenty of rest. Some day I will drive her out in the great west and we will have a good vacation. How is my little sunflower? Wish I could hear her babble and see her dimpled smile. Wish above all I that I was hugging and kissing my little girl.

    With all my love,

    Walter

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