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July 1936. "Harvesting oats. Clayton, Indiana, south of Indianapolis." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.
Just looking at all those oats makes me itch.
I shall have to use this photo in a family history I am compiling. (It is not a commercial venture, copyright guardians!) Along about 1875, one of my great-grand uncles was driving such a hayrick in such a manner (in nearby Mercer County, Ohio) when a lightning strike spooked the team. They bolted for the barn, Uncle John forgot to duck, and was brained on the 12x12 hickory lintel. Soon thereafter, my great-grandfather married his brother's pregnant widow, and they had another five children together. And so, despite individual setbacks, the gene pool slouches forward.
When I see pictures like this, I always imagine how quiet it must have been, out in the field with horses and wagon, compared to working with a tractor.
My mother tells of driving the team of workhorses on the family farm in the 1930s. I doubt that her dad let her 10-year-old self handle a full hayrick, though
And the prize a shiny new needle, but you have to find it in the hay rack.
Ok, contestants, who will be the first to pinpoint this location?
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