In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

C HAPTER 2 ALEX AND THE HOBO A young boy stood inside his father’s barbershop looking out a large window. He could see the building directly across from him but could not make out anything more than a block away, up or down the street. Gusts of wind rattled the plate glass, and for five days, gales had howled dayandnight,turningtheskyachocolatebrown.Astreetlampwhirled on its pole, and Alex thought it would tear loose from its socket at any moment. The world from end to end seemed covered by a massive cloud of dust blocking out the sun. Endless balls of tumbleweed rolled down the street, snagging in doorways and under parked cars. “Papá, is this what the end of the world is like?” asked the boy, with a worried look on his face. “No, but it sure seems like it,” his father patiently explained. “Does this scare you?” “I guess, but will the sun ever shine again?” “Oh, I’m sure it will, Alex. But I must agree with you, this is the worst dust storm I’ve ever seen.” A lone man fought his way through the back alley and on to Main Street not far from where Alex stood watching from the window. The man faced his head into the wind and tried to walk, but tumbleweed snagged his feet. He stumbled, nearly fell, and struggled to regain his footing only to feel the wind tear a sack from his grasp and carry it down the street. The man disappeared as if swallowed by the cloud of dust. March had come in like a lion, bringing winds that blew away tons of badly needed topsoil. The spring winds, showing no mercy, had dried the mountain snows, battered roofs, torn off shingles, and rattled loose sheets of galvanized iron, scattering them for miles around. Alex spotted the Fire Department bell, jarred loose from its cage across the street, and he watched as some volunteers climbed up on the roof and put it back in its place. The wind blew down their ladder, and other members of their company set it back up so the volunteers could climb down from the roof. 15 The year was 1942, and Alex and his family had left their ranch so his father could find work and a better school for his children. The new town needed a barber, and Alex’s father was a good one. Their ranch only had a one-room schoolhouse and a single teacher for all the students , from first to eighth grade. Their new town had a high school with a football field, a railroad station, and a main street with stores and saloons. Still, Alex could walk just a few blocks in any direction and be out in open country teeming with jackrabbits. Alex was nine years old and the third in a family of five children . His father fought an uphill battle to provide for such a big family . A barber did not earn a lot, and there was little money floating around anyway. The country had just come out of the Great Depression, and some employers paid their workers with vouchers. The rationing and shortages that came with World War II meant that even those with money could not buy many items. A person had to have ration stamps for gasoline, tires, coffee, sugar, and cigarettes. Car companies made Jeeps, army trucks, tanks, and airplanes to fight the war. The hardships facing the nation didn’t affect Alex much, but he did have to go out to work in the fields. The war had taken the best men, and so Alex, like many boys and girls his age, would soon hire out. New farm machinery slowly replaced old. Alex and his family struggled to get by. Their work was hard, and the hardest work came in the spring when the fields started to turn green. By the end of May, the winds had died down, and Alex was excited when school let out on the 25th. He was a curious boy and was allowed to roam the streets during the day. With his school friends, he played near the old flour mill or walked the rails and watched the big steam engine switching cars from one track to another. Sometimes, he would stand near the shipping yard and watch as sheep or cattle were loaded onto the stock cars headed for the high-mountain summer grazing. Alex liked being out in the open and missed...

Share