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| "Taken from southwest corner of flat." -- Earle Dobson |
This set of pictures was taken by my uncle, Earle Dobson, 82 years ago – August 29-30, 1939 – on my grandparents' homestead where we live today.
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| Taken from mail carriers road. -- EJD |
It had been a small family farm, but one by one the children had grown and left. And now the American farm scene was in a state of flux. The old guys were still farming with horses because they couldn’t afford to do otherwise. Younger farmers were switching to tractors and larger, better combines and plows.
I’m reminded of a neighbor, Neil Miller, who recounted to me years ago: “I told my dad, if you expect ME to farm here, you WILL get a tractor. I AM NOT walking behind horses.” So, they got the tractor, and Neil went on to farm in this community for the rest of his life, although he expanded his acreage. His family is still represented here, but like the rest of us, they have turned their farmland over to a corporation that farms on a large scale. That’s the only way we can afford to farm these days.
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| Vance making friends with Bossy (or young Buttercup). |
Anyway, as an industry, agriculture was changing, and some farms (and some people) were caught in the tightening web. What had been a good way of life was slipping away. In 1939, Grandpa Jack was 75, and Grandma Ina was 69. The work was hard and getting harder, but Jack kept at it until he was at death's door (1945), with Earle returning in the summer to help out. That worked well for a decade or two, but finally summer help just wasn’t enough.
As will usually happen, the children had all moved away and established their own lives. Myrtle was 45 and working in Portland. Earle, 43, was a junior high teacher in Idaho Falls. Vance, 35, was a piano teacher in Raymond, WA. And Shirley, the youngest, was 29. She had lived at home, or nearby, until 1937 when she married her longtime beau, Henry Shockley. They would soon move to Seattle for work.
I
don’t know why this family reunion occurred at this time, but while they appear
to be having a good time, the group photos suggest something more serious. Or, maybe I just read that into it. Earle captioned this photo: "Examining a grasshopper's teeth," while Myrtle added, "No wonder they can chew up the crops!"
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| Bernice, Myrtle, Vance, Shirley (with field glasses) |
And it's not lost on me that while the children are deep in discussion over grasshopper teeth, etc., Dad works away down on the flat, and if he has help, it isn't from his children. Earle captions this photo, "Hauling hay during threshing," and Myrtle adds (perhaps years later), "The Vanishing American Scene."
Uncle Earle notes that the group photos below were taken August 30, 1939, the morning he and Bernice left for Idaho Falls. Back in the day, Idaho schools started after Labor Day, and one reason was that the farm kids (and many were farm kids) were needed to help with harvest. KW
Left to right: Earle, Shirley, Vance, Julian (Jack), Ina, Myrtle, Bernice
4 comments:
Things keep changing. Even now, things change within family dynamics. In our family, the kids grew up, moved away. Then, as we got older, we moved to where the majority of the children were, for support in our declining years. Now, the outliers will have to come where we ar, or not see us. When they can work out a trip to see other family members, they will come when they can. That's our new norm.
I think of a man I visited with in the Apokane Airport years ago. His son and family had been visiting from the East Coast for a week. He said that extended families used to be close because the kids didn't move away, but nowadays, people have to go where the job is. He might have been right, but Ina's children all moved away. I do think that some mothers, like Ina and our mother, expected to maintain a family home and that the children would return from time to time to be "at home." I think that's less likely to happen these days.
Every time I look at that first picture it looks like the field is snow covered!
I see what you mean, Chris. The ground looks softly white. But no, it's August.
I note that in the group pictures, the children look at ease and as though they are enjoying the moment. Ina and Jack don't seem happy. Maybe it's just a carry-over from the old-time photo demeanor where one didn't smile for the camera.
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