great book, nice n' short too - read that right around the time my daughter nearly died of complications of hte swine-flu, sorta set my shit in its proper perspective - i never knew the dust bowl was so lethal to babies - the account of starved horses eating fenceposts protruding from dust mounds was memorable as well
I grew up just uphill (foothills of the Temblor Range) from the southern San Joaquin valley of CA. As a kid I endured two, maybe three serious dust storms. Friends and family of mine experienced valley fever, which is pretty obnoxious and tenacious. I seem to have developed a tendency toward bronchitis resulting from a cold that my doc says may be attributed to growing up where I did.