I recently attended a family reunion on my dad’s side of the family in southern Minnesota. My dad was the youngest of 8 kids and was born when his dad was 50. They lived in a modest farm house making their living raising crops and milking cows. Of all the siblings, it’s just my dad and his one brother left. With the majority of my aunts and uncles gone, we don’t get to that part of the state as often as we used to and I had not been to the specific area where my dad grew up in decades.
The night before the reunion, I asked my dad if he’d be up for a drive past the old farm house and the neighboring small town that they called home. He agreed and the next morning, my dad, my cousin (who is the same age as my dad and also grew up in the area), and I met up in the hotel lobby in Marshall, MN at 6:45, and headed out into the early morning fog.
The entire excursion only lasted an hour or so, but it was a lot of fun to hear my dad and cousin reminiscing as different sights along the way jolted their memories. Everything from who lived in which house when, to stories about going in the ditch late at night and having to run home to get the tractor to pull the car out.
The fog added something to the feeling of a time gone by. No longer was the large red barn standing behind the house my dad grew up in. There were no tractors in the yard anymore, just a Prius and some overgrown bushes. It was actually hard to get a good look at the house from the road with how overgrown everything had become, but it was still nice to be there.
These photos were all shot along the way, in-between stories. At this point, my dad is used to hearing, “hold on a sec… this looks cool… I’m going to jump out and grab a shot.”
By 8:00 we were back at the hotel getting the rented event room ready for the reunion and I was feeling very happy that I resisted the urge to sleep in. It’s so easy to pass up experiences like this, but I always find I’m happiest when I decide to go for it.
These shots remind me of rural Iowa where I grew up. You captured the essence of the Midwest on a foggy morning. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Great shots, fantastic grey mood