April 14, 1935: Fearful dust storm inspires songwriter
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/daybyday/04-14-001.html
On this day in 1935 a great dust storm covered the Texas Panhandle town
of Pampa, inspiring Woody Guthrie to write the song "So Long, It's Been
Good To Know You."
Guthrie had moved to Pampa in 1929. Performing with bands at nightclubs
and radio stations in the Panhandle, he found his calling as lyricist
and musician and began developing skills that later gained him a
reputation as a writer, cartoonist, and down-home philosopher. He
married a Pampa girl, Mary Jennings, in 1933 and experienced the pain
of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, sources of his many songs
that appealed to his fellow sufferers.
When the great storm of April 14, 1935, occurred, some Pampans thought
that the end of the world was upon them and that there was just time
for final goodbyes. Tired of dust and poverty, Guthrie left for Los
Angeles in 1937.
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