THE OLD HOMEPLACE – 1950 AND TODAY

Taken by Kathy, September 2, 2022

My uncle, Earle Dobson (my dad’s brother), was a good amateur photographer, specializing in scenery shots. I think the challenge of using the light meter to set the camera appealed to him. On the back of a photograph, he would note the place, the date, and the camera settings.

The photos on this post are those he took when he visited the farm in the summer of 1950. I think he took them because he recognized that life on the farm had changed and would change even more. Grandpa Julian was gone, and my dad had become the farm manager. Grandma would live at the farm another seven years, but she was in poor health. Uncle June and Aunt Bertha on the adjacent homestead had both died and their place had been sold. The livestock was gone. It just wasn’t the same place where he and his siblings had grown up. This happens, and we all know it.

My dad was born in this cabin.

My quest was to take a picture from the same spot on the hill east of the house where Uncle Earle stood 72 years ago. So, I went to that hill, but the maple tree my dad planted 50 years ago has grown large and obscures the house. I could go back and try to position myself a better, but there’s really no point. 

And today, just the house and barn remain of the old buildings, unless you count the woodshed. The henhouse was gone sometime in the ‘50s. We razed the old house in 1971. The cold house – they called it a cellar – was crushed when the big pine hit the house in 1996. I know there were several more outbuildings, including, of course, the outhouse. KW