April 14 - Texas History

This is today in Texas history.

On this day, April the 14th 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 fans at nightclubs and radio stations

in the Panhandle.

He found his calling as a 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.

Tired of dust and poverty, Guthrie left for Los Angeles in 1937, I bet you didn't know

that.

That was today in Texas history.