Old timers in these parts like to spot a newbie—that’s a
newcomer in your old timer vocabulary—and then they ask the same question.
“Do you remember the Great Flood in the Bible?”
You don’t have to be a biblical scholar to know the
answer. All say, “Yes.” Even the occasional atheist knows about the
flood. They may or may not believe it,
but they answer in the affirmative as well.
One of the old timers will then reply, “Yup, we got 2 inches
of that.”
Dry is the new normal in western Oklahoma. It has been 2 consecutive years of very
dry. Wells are going dry. Farm ponds are dried up. Lakes and rivers are all low. Pasture land is scarce.
But into every life a little rain must fall. Much would be welcomed, but only a little
fell yesterday evening. In fact, so
little rain fell that it was just enough to make mud but just not enough to
wash the mud off of the local vehicles.
The result was dirtouflage.
Dirtouflage resembles modern digital camouflage but it is
much more transient for the dirtouflage will blow away if it doesn’t get washed
off first.
It is still dry in western Oklahoma. Folks understand drought and dust bowl more
than they like, but they are still able to laugh when the sky gives up just
enough moisture to make droplets of mud.