At least one thing modern technology is good for: in all the oppressive avalanche of data, sometimes you find things you really care about.
Even though I couldn't remember where it was - and now it's just a corn field, which makes it harder to find - I came across this picture from 2007 on Google Street View of the house my grandmother grew up in. I visited there as a kid, pumped water by hand in the yard, ate apples off the trees in the back (gone in this picture, sadly), and picked garter snakes out of the flower bed.
When my great-grandmother died, they sold the property, and all the buildings were torn down - although they saved a plank from the barn where my great-great-uncle (?) Jack carved a picture of a sailing ship and the date (1907? 1912? can't remember) - because the land was too valuable to leave empty buildings on.
That tower was the windmill my great-grandfather erected, which gave the township the first powered well. They even hooked up a generator to it, and they would have all their neighbors over in the evenings to listen to Glen Miller on the radio.
Anyway, to the rest of you, this is just an old farmhouse that doesn't exist anymore. But to me, it's an integral part of my family history. I'm sure the rest of you have little plots of land around the country that hold that same meaning, even if they are all just covered in corn now.
Even though I couldn't remember where it was - and now it's just a corn field, which makes it harder to find - I came across this picture from 2007 on Google Street View of the house my grandmother grew up in. I visited there as a kid, pumped water by hand in the yard, ate apples off the trees in the back (gone in this picture, sadly), and picked garter snakes out of the flower bed.
When my great-grandmother died, they sold the property, and all the buildings were torn down - although they saved a plank from the barn where my great-great-uncle (?) Jack carved a picture of a sailing ship and the date (1907? 1912? can't remember) - because the land was too valuable to leave empty buildings on.
That tower was the windmill my great-grandfather erected, which gave the township the first powered well. They even hooked up a generator to it, and they would have all their neighbors over in the evenings to listen to Glen Miller on the radio.
Anyway, to the rest of you, this is just an old farmhouse that doesn't exist anymore. But to me, it's an integral part of my family history. I'm sure the rest of you have little plots of land around the country that hold that same meaning, even if they are all just covered in corn now.
