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The Story
Mark Dobson is the eldest of two children living on the family farm in the Oklahoma panhandle. In 1929, when Mark is 14, the life he and his family have experienced comes to a sudden end. On October 29, 1929 the Stock Market crashes. Many banks fail, closing their doors and leaving customers like the Dobsons penniless.
Two years later, the Midwestern states fall into a severe and unrelenting drought. Mark and his family watch their crops shrivel in the sun as the soil is turned to dust.
Mark join his father (a World War One veteran) to petition President Hoover for early payment of their veteran's bonus money. Things become violent when General MacArthur disperses the Bonus Army with tear gas and guns, killing and injuring some protesters. Mark and his father return to Oklahoma, now beaten and dispirited.
1932 President Roosevelt is elected the family is evicted from the family home, they must now separate in order to survive. Mark's father leaves to find work; his mother and sister are taken in by a relative, and Mark follows in his father's footsteps as he heads out alone to California and the promise of opportunity.
Mark heads for California on the now-famous Route 66. He is befriended by a hobo named Pete, who teaches him how to hop trains.
On his first trip riding the rails, Mark meets a young African American hobo named Fred Fred plays the guitar and teaches Mark the harmonica. One night when they become the victims of a racial attack. Mark and Fred try to run to safety by hopping on a speeding train, but Fred miscalculates and is thrown off the car to his death.
In California, economic prejudice is everywhere, as Californians protest "Okies, go home". Working conditions are brutal and pay is horribly low. Even the union organizers can't help; demands for better conditions are met with violence. Mark leaves California for Washington State.
In Seattle he learns about the Civilian Conservation Corps. Later his days are filled with difficult and exciting work at the Grand Coulee Dam.
Mark's fortunes continue to rise when he learns that his father is also working on the dam! Mark makes plans to send for his mother and Sister, and also applies to music school in Seattle.
These happy times end suddenly when an accident at the dam kills Marks' father. Mark is left with a badly injured hand. In time Mark learns to play again, overcoming the pain and fear. His audition for music school is a success and he enters school on a scholarship. As his musical career continues to grow, Mark is thankful that his family overcame great misfortune and remembers those who had to rebuild the dreams "that got blown away in the dust of the Great Depression."
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