Tuesday, October 29, 1929. A day that was whispered within the winds and written with many different inks of different hands. I remember it well, almost too well if you ask me. Many write of the Great Depression in their diaries while I write not only in a diary but I also intend to turn my notes into a story based on my own experiences. My name is Prainy Mist and yes I'm aware that it is an unusual name. I live on a farm with my father and five brothers. It's definitely not easy to be the only girl in the house since my family pushes me to do the usual chores you'd see women do. I don't want to be stuck in this lame situation! I want adventure, action and the real fun things there are to do out in the great world. 1
Saskatchewan, Canada, the one place I could rightfully call my home. I've lived here for all the seventeen years of my life. It used to be the same thing everyday, grow crops, sell, take cake of the animals, finish the chores and then go to sleep. At this point I'm so very tired of the same conditions and events faced every waking moment of my life. Anyway, a terrifying event both surprised and gave me crazy ideas for adventure. Before what we call "Black Tuesday", the price of wheat went down in 1928 and soon enough between 1931 - 1934, when it came wheat, it cost us more to produce it than sell it. We thought it was the worst that could happen until the sun decided to play cruel games with our minds. 2
Fine dust, just fine dust. That was all that our soil turned into. Useless for our crops and definitely not helpful to the situation. Soon enough, many people began to leave the provinces... which my family did not. Father knows we must move because grasshoppers and plant diseases destroyed w hat little we had left. He cannot bring himself to move away because mother was buried on our property. He would visit her daily and once a year plant a red rose on her birthday. There are seven roses out there that are now either long dead or are in the process of wilting just like my mother did. I decided I'm not like my father and desparately seeked for my chance to find adventure. 3
Constant squeeling of wheels fill my ears as I write this. I ran away from home and hopped onto a train that travels throughout Canada. I can recognize a few people on this train that used to live in Saskatchewan. I feel a little sick because I haven't been eating for the past while. I'm scared of what lays ahead and there just isn't enough food. I've been on this train for days and it's really tiring me out. The train is filled with lice that are now attacking my body. I'm blindly scratching which is only making me bleed. I'm stuck in the middle of the Great Depression but I want to try to be positive. I got onto this train with high hopes for adventure and change and I will find it! For now, I'm tired and will cease my writing. Tomorrow, maybe when I wake up, I'll be in a new province full of happiness and promise. 4
-Prainy Mist 5
This beautiful young girl was found dead in the same train I was in. I found her clutching her diary and decided to turn it into a story that she intended to write. My name does not matter for it is her story that I will finish. There is no room for happiness and good fortune in the middle of a Depression such as this. As you can tell, this story did not have such a happy ending. I still remember the scene, such an awkward one. This beautiful young girl on the floor in a gloomy, dirty and dusty train compartment. I brushed her hair away from her face to find a smile. Perhaps she now has found her true place of happiness. Maybe there really is room for a little happiness and hope. Maybe she has found a farm to live on with her mother, soon to be joined by the rest of her family and the wilted roses all brought back to beauty. Another life lost in this cursed Depression but now another life remembered. As for me, I did not experience what this poor girl did in the prairies, in fact, I'm from Ontario. But my own experiences would be a whole new story.6
Author notes
I wrote this for history class.
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Comments
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Killer write. It is real interesting. I am just iching to read more. Are going to add to it? Because that would be great. Well anyways keep writing.
LxSER
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