Tuesday

Memories of old.

Growing up on a wheat farm an hour away from the closest place of civilization had it's advantages and disadvantages....as I was growing up, they were all disadvantageous for my much important social life, but now that I think back to them, I am grateful for all the things I got to experience. It was definitely carefree living, where the only thing you had to worry about was keeping the raccoons out of the dog food, and the random deer from trampling all over the flower garden, while saving the garter snakes from the lawn mower...yup, pretty rough.

One of those experiences that I fondly remember is when my dad would load up the grain truck with the piles and piles of grain from harvest to take into town so we could reap the benefits of living on a wheat farm...it was our income and my dad was proud of his hard work. He would load us kids into the semi truck and we'd take off on our hour long journey into town. Our favorite part of this experience was getting to sit in the makeshift bed built into the cab, with no seatbelts! We'd have full access to crawl back and forth from one end of the bed to the other and to the passenger seat of the truck. I remember one of us had found a mini calendar stuck to the wall behind the driver's seat..........but this calendar had women in it wearing only an itty bitty bikini sprawled out on the beach or a car. We kept it hush hush between us and giggled and smirked as we'd flip through the pages. Pretty mischieveous, huh?

At the grain elevator, my dad would drive through the building through a tunnel and onto a scale where they would weigh and measure out the grain. I loved watching the grain pour out of the hole on the underside of the trailer into a hole made into the ground that looked like an abyss. I can still smell the aroma of it all. Warm and.....grainy? I can't really describe it.

I've been attracted to what used to be a grain elevator here. Slowly disintegrating from being left alone, I can just imagine in it's prime the steam rising out of it and the trucks lining up to empty their loads....maybe the railroad cars lining up beside it being loaded with the grain to take to a faraway place. The only thing left from the days of use are the pidgeons still flying around, up and down, trying to scrounge up a few pieces of grain left over from the daily dumping.

The lot is up for sale now, the beginning phases of the destruction of something that used to be counted on being there for the livlihood of some. Hopefully not before I book a session there. :)





1 comment:

Julie Rivera Photography said...

How cool would it be to do a session there? Oh my, I haven't seen the pace save for your picture and my mind is already going. Absolutely wonderful image and I love the movement of the birds flying around.