Nelson Ford

•May 7, 2025•

by Janet Roney

Murphy’s Law was alive and well in our family in 1988. I had several items on my “Oh, no!” list that year. At the top of the list were some family members’ illnesses and my little brother’s death. Then, there was the Drought of 1988. 

City folks don’t like water rationing, high temperatures, and brown lawns during droughts. For farmers like us, who can only stand idly by while their crops shrivel in 90 to 100+ degree temperatures and weeks of no rain, droughts are catastrophes. The Drought of 1988 was a catastrophe for central Illinois farmers, the worst drought since the record drought of 1954. 

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