On boys and their father. their house

On the stamp a rather small house is seen along with two young boys and their father.

Their house is not actually small in comparison to them; in fact, the dust storms have become so bad that most of the house had been covered in dust. A hole in the side was forcefully opened in order to get in. This particular storm seen affected the Cimarron County Oklahoma in April of 1936. This stamp is one of the many created in the 1990’s to Celebrate the Centuries including the 1930’s. The Dust Bowl or more commonly known as the “ Dirty Thirties” occurred because of drought, livestock overgrazing, over farming, and poor farming practices.

From 1932-3, there were over 50 dust storms that affected 100 acres in the Great Plains.  Over 300, 000 people relocated to California during the Dirty Thirties to start over because of the damage to land caused.  The dust was so dangerous some days kids were forced to stay overnight as walking home, and breathing in the deadly dust was a serious health hazard and could cause dust pneumonia. Around 6, 500 people were killed after just one year of the storms. They perished while trying to hop on freight trains to get to other parts of the nation to look for work. It’s estimated that nearly two million people became homeless because of the Dust Bowl and the devastation it did to their fields.

75% of the population affected did not move away, and chose to wait it out while Approximately 2. 5 million people left the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl. Those who stayed where forced to have chains drag behind their cars due to high static electricity from the storms. Most homes invaded by the dust had collapsed attics because of the heavy build-up.

To follow one of the worst ecological and agricultural disasters caused by humans in history, Walt Disney and his team of creative writers created the first female royal starting the princess craze of today.  This gave all of America something uplifting to enjoy while the economy and agriculture struggled to stay afloat.. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full length animated film from the United States created by Walt Disney Studios.  The entirety of the film was hand drawn by over 750 expert artists, over two million drawings for the movie were made, but only 250, 000 drawings made it into the film. All of their hard work paid off when,  in 1937, Walt Disney won an Honorary Award for ” Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field.” according to the Oscars. Walt was awarded one large statue and seven little ones from Shirley Temple.

One of the most famous child stars of the 30’s in movies like Curly Top, Bright Eyes, and The Littlest Princess. To give Snow White a more youthful glow, real rouge was applied to the cell drawings. One female artist was so particularly good at it she was assigned the job of applying it to all of the close-up cels. The compilation of films entitled the Silly Symphony in 1934 had a short titled The Goddess of Spring used as the test run to see if animators could create a realistic looking female character. Unfortunately, they should have tested a male character too because most of The Princes scenes were cut. He was allowed only two minutes of screen time because they couldn’t create a realistic enough male physique. On the stamp, Snow White is wearing her classic blue, yellow and red dress. On her hand is an elegantly perched blue and white bird blue.

This scene is from her song A Smile and a Song. These ten stamps were designed by the US post office in the 1990’s to honor the achievement of each decade. The creation of this innocent beauty paved the road for all of the past, present and possibly future princess of our time.