Reading about Seattle’s homeless of over 2,000 reminds me of the Dust Bowl Days in Texas in the 1930s. Even these cold days here in Kent.
Almost all of the local cowboys living in Wink, Texas, had to live where they could, and most of them lived in dugouts with a pole to tie their horse to overnight.
They dug a large hole in the dirt, placed a canvas for flooring and took their bed wraps to sleep in overnight. They even used a small outdoor campfire to cook and keep warm before bedtime. It was not against the law to do so, as hotels were few and filled. I even got to spend a few nights as a guest, so I know firsthand it could be a strange way to survive, but there were times on the trail that a chuck wagon could be used.
Odd as it sounds, there were cowgirls who did the same, for good reasons. There sometimes were more cowgirls than cowboys, as a number of men ended up in the service, so cowgirls were necessary.
Even today, there is a real ghost of a cowgirl in Rattlesnake Canyon in Wink, Texas, that the late Roy Orbison used to search out weekends back in 1952. We learned that she had been struck by lightning one night while herding cattle in a storm, so when I read about over 2,000 with no bed to sleep nights, it brought back memories of Wink, Texas, that few will ever know.
Leon Thompson
Kent
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