Tuesday, December 28, 2021
My Grandparents in their Garden. About Mid1960s.
This is my favorite photo of my mom's parents. They lived in Western Illinois (Mt. Sterling). It's diffficult to see the garden in this photo. My grandfather, Glenn Wilbur Alcorn, always grew sweet potatoes, tomatoes, potatoes, sweetcorn, turnips, dahlias, zinnias, balsam. I'm sure those are dahlias to her right and balsam to his left. I recall my mom telling me that his doctor told him to garden, after he had a heart attack. I don't remember if my grandmother, Ivy Icenogle Alcorn, also worked in the garden. I'm thinking she must have, but my recollection is more of him.
A little reminiscent of "American Gothic", except it looks like they're happy and forgot the pitch fork.
ReplyDeleteWe went down that way a time or 2 from Princeton, following the IL river from Bureau Juncion, through Henry, Chillicothe, Peoria and down to Dixon Mounds museum where they held folk music festivals. The weekend we went was for learning to play the hammered dulcimer. The museum was interesting as well.
What struck me about that drive, was the number of closed factories on the west bank of the Illinois river - fenced off - grass and saplings growing up through the many cracks in old pavement parking lots. I imagine about the time that photo was taken it was a prosperous area with lots of industry. Some of the buildings were spray painted with messages like "Thanks, NAFTA". It was heart rending to see the economic devastation industry closure brought to that area - Canton and Lewistown seemed to me like it would have been a lovely area to live.
My wife had 20 years where she taught in a north central high school, before we got married and we relocated to Princeton. A few years later, budget cuts eliminated her position and we explored a number of western IL communities where she could have taken another teaching job - from Galesburg, Aledo, all the way up to Mt. Carroll, Savannah, and Lena Winslow up on the border with WI. That devastation from factory closures proved to be all over. Even in Ford Co. where we have the 2nd house for family is that way in the smaller communities - the 'county seat' is thriving - some of that probably has to do with being on the freeway.
It gives me joy to see americana like that - the memories - while at the same time aches me that like Joni Mitchell said - we 'paved paradise and put up a parking lot' ...