Storm Chasing May 22, 2007

May 22, 2007 From Liberal, KS to Oakley, KS and then on to Southwest of Hill City, KS

First stop, Scott City, KS Library. As always, I asked for local historical information on Scott City and Jeff pulled up data. I was looking through a book put out by the Scott County Historical Society and came across a wonderful poem "Sod House" written by C. Robertson, great-aunt of Ellen Drake. This poem struck a cord with me for a variety of reasons, 1) as a photographer traveling through the plains states I often see the abandoned one room houses from the turn of the century surrounded by wheat fields, making for a great photograph. 2) The poem makes reference to "The hot wind's breath and the cyclone's roar" no explanation needed.

Below you will find the poem in its entirety, by permission of Ellen Drake, Scott City, KS. Thank you to Ellen Drake, for giving me permission to publish this wonderful poem on my website.

Sod House

Sod house, sod house on the sagebrush plain,
What tales you could tell of joy and pain.
Homely tales of laughter and tears
That checkered the lives of the pioneers.

Sod house, sod house with adobe floor
Worn by the feet that nevermore
Will leave their print on your kindly clay.
Tell us the tales of yesterday.

Tell us the tales that burn and grip
Told by the light of a tallow dip.
Tapestried tales on gunny sacks
Hung on your walls to cover the cracks.

Weave in the woof taut threads of life
Tethered to soil-the prairie wife

Who bore her brood and made no moan
And marked her dead with a pile of stone.

Silent men where the furrows fall
Row on row, and over all
The hot wind's breath, the cyclone's roar
And the hungry wolf that howled at the door.

Sod house, sod house, we are waiting to hear
Of the gallant life of the pioneer;
The man who lived in a house of sod
Nearer to earth, nearer to God.

By C. Robertson, great-aunt of Ellen Drake

Thank you to Julie O'Brien, Librarian for Scott City Public Library for "all of your help" in contacting Ms. Drake.

Me in my designer Tornado shirt go to www.cafepress.com/tornados to get yours! This large cross in a cemetery just ahead of the tail end charlie storm