False Historical Fact (January 2004)

The great Depression was, in fact, a time of great prosperity!

Many people think that the period early in the 20th century known as the "Great Depression" had something to do with a decrease in prosperity for citizens of the United States...not so.

While, admittedly, there were some people who were slightly worse off (eating worms, etc), many people noted substantial financial windfalls, primarily in the midwestern United States, where dust barons made sizable sums exporting finely-powdered dirt in varying hues...typically via highly available and free (but messy) naturally occurring wind.

People today, because of the use of this wind shipping technique, and the misunderstanding of the times around it, routinely use the terms "this sucks" or "that blows" in a negative sense. They never realize that dust barons of the day, (if they heard the terms used that way) would have had quite a chuckle.