This is Taryn. I’m back in Minneapolis because my job at the Minnesota Daily is starting again – because I shot my last wedding – because I crossed Kendra’s and my last trip off my to-do list and so it seemed like time. But I’m still working. Stress + summer temptations + weddings coming out our ears have put this book a little behind schedule. What it all adds up to is an inability to monitor my work successfully without setting deadlines. This is why I love newspapers: they have very firm, unavoidable deadlines.

So I’m giving myself a deadline. I’m going to be writing like crazy until the end of August and hopefully by the time my cousin Paige gets married over Labor Day weekend, I will have some concrete stuff to hand over to Kendra.

Here’s how it turned out (roughly):

We visited five different towns in as geographically varied locations as we could. We interviewed families, farmers, business owners, and community enthusiasts. Some of the people we talked to fit all of these at once. We also took a nice trip around the entire state to take pictures, eat cafe food and observe lives outside our own. There’s so much I could tell you about that trip…I will save it for another blog post.

Because I’m still blogging! I’m determined to tell you everything I thought about telling you as we went along but never got to for one reason or another. Please forgive the retroactive posts, but I promise they will still be vivid and thoughtful. Promise :)

Until next time, thanks for reading. I’m sorry to anyone who checked back regularly only to have their hearts crushed. Here’s what you have to look forward to:

1) Road trip tips/memories/observations. You haven’t lived til you’ve touched every border of your home state.

2) Snip-its from the 3/5 towns you haven’t heard much about yet.

3) The culture shock I experienced visiting Los Angeles, California for a week after spending my summer in small town North Dakota.

4) Pictures!

Okay. Now I should get to the actual writing…More soon!

So here’s an update!

1) We have been to Underwood, Watford City, Stanley, Page and Hatton. As I’m writing about these places, I feel like they’re gaining personality. I know that most of that is based off of how I perceived the town, but it’s fun to hear the tone of each story become distinct. There’s no doubt we’ve found similarities between each town, but we make an effort to find what makes them different. We asked about that when we talked to Raven, a 15-year-old girl who works at the drugstore in Stanley. She said it’s the people that make Stanley different than the small towns around it. So far, I’d say that’s absolutely right. We’ve blogged about a couple of these towns, but expect some more excerpts soon!

2) We’re trying really hard to stay faithful to all of our commitments which is why we have been spending more time in Fargo than we thought we would. I’m writing for this as well as for another job and Kendra has other clients, so we’re catching up. But we’re not giving up on this project. We found a weekend in the second half of July with no weddings so we’re going to take another long trip. Raise your hand if you struggle with multitasking.

3) Have you ever listened to Mumford & Sons? I don’t add to my music collection very often (mostly because I’m too cheap to buy CDs or MP3s), but I’d seen the name of this group so much that I finally looked them up. Kendra and I are mildly obsessed. So if you like banjo that doesn’t sound like a hoedown and great lyrics, you should check them out.

4) We gave in and bought a book on tape because we realized it’s more conducive to our summer plans. And Kendra really needed to [hear] this book.

5) I already said we’ve been catching up on things. So check out Kendra’s photography blog to see what she’s been up to. Some of my wedding photography is posted there too. Let us know what you think!

6) On Monday we’re flying to Salt Lake City for a few days. Kendra is going to attend a photography workshop by Natalie Norton on Tuesday and then we’re going to be tourists for a couple days. I love traveling so I’m getting pretty excited. Also, we were going to leave Sunday because we were going to drive. We’ve since decided we love flying so we’re leaving Monday instead. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? I get to watch the World Cup 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands. I hope the capital letters help you understand how exciting this is for me.

7) Kendra and I have decided we have to make a book (for ourselves) that contains all the ridiculous moments we’ve had together this summer. We don’t hate each other yet! That’s a great accomplishment. For being sisters who are 5 years apart, we’ve become great friends. I think it helps we have this project as a common passion. I’m a fan.

Okay, I think that’s everything. It’s probably not, but I feel like I’m talking your ear off so I will be done for now.

Enjoy the sunshine wherever you are.

T

p.s. Kendra and I knew we needed a picture for the blog, but we couldn’t decide on what would fit and we couldn’t find a good one of the two of us. So our default is Hadley. She’s always cute, right?

Community is also more relational than geographic. When I think about where I live in Fargo, I know I would rarely refer to it as my community. This is the city in which I live. I may have a church home or a group of friends, but those are pockets of familiarity within the city and would never be as complete as community is in these towns. In those we have visited, community seems to mean waving at passing cars, pitching in to plant trees and shopping locally to keep the grocery store open. We have found community-owned movie theaters, cafes and daycares. When we ate dinner at a new restaurant in Watford City, which had the atmosphere of a Doolittle’s or Ruby Tuesdays, people walked around and greeted their friends at neighboring tables before they were seated. It felt like a small-town cafe. It blew my mind!

Fargo becomes a “community” when the Red River rises and everyone helps fill more than 1 million sandbags in two or three days. But on a daily basis, we choose Wal-Mart over local markets and I’ve never heard of a community-owned anything. Except maybe a park. I don’t think one way is better than the other, but as a city person, it was charming.

“I call it ‘The Ultimate Energy Harvest,’” he said. He was pacing back and forth, looking from the painting to the window and talking with his hands.

Wayne is the fourth generation of his family to farm in Stanley, N.D. He’s a community man who encourages investing in local businesses and infrastructure to keep the town alive. After talking for hours, we discovered he’s also a visionary who propagates a philosophy of adaptation, no matter what changes occur outside his control.

The painting in his kitchen captures his dream of erecting wind turbines, digging for oil and growing canola – an emerging biodiesel – on his farmland. He commissioned Andrew Knudson, a local artist, to create the piece of art as a constant reminder of his dream.

Driving through North Dakota, we noticed sporadic piles of rocks in fields. I mean huge rocks, not gravel. Wayne told us these are remnants of the first homesteaders who turned over the sod, removed the rocks and began raising crops.

“Every time I see a rock pile, it’s like a monument to their vision,” Wayne explained. “That picture is my rock pile.”

He said learning to adapt is crucial to living in a small town because it’s not like you can choose to shop at the other grocery store or go to the other church.

“You don’t like your priest? You can drive 60 miles that way to find another one,” he said.

His response isn’t to become passive. Wayne said the lack of options means small town residents have to be “as industrious or more” than city dwellers.

So whenever a new challenge presents itself, like the old church has aged beyond its usefulness or oil workers have infiltrated the town, Wayne talked about finding ways to make everything work. Just like in the painting, he aims for “harmonious success.”

Strolling down Lincoln Avenue, Kellen Utecht recalled the time a couple classmates painted graffiti on the Underwood water tower. Or when he and his friends got kicked out of their usual parking lot hangout because cigarette butts were found.

“I heard you’re leaving us,” a storeowner said to Kellen.

“Someday,” he replied.

At 27, Kellen returned to Underwood – population recorded at 710 in 2008 – after studying economics at the University of North Dakota, working in Fargo and serving two years in the Peace Corps. For Kellen, his hometown is just another stop along the way. A deep-set appreciation for the people who watched him grow doesn’t offset his desire to find his way in a bigger city.

Take the turn off Highway 83 about 45 miles north of Bismarck and the D’Eggo Diner comes into view. It’s unmistakable, painted blue and sitting on the corner of Lincoln Avenue, the town’s main street. Across from it: The Black Nugget – “I always thought that’d be the bar I go to,” Kellen noted. The two establishments look like pillars between which a banner could be stretched, declaring to any newcomers: Welcome to Underwood.

Inching block-by-block, several stores have changed ownership, purpose or closed altogether throughout Kellen’s life. One thing hasn’t changed, though. The town still has an original soda fountain – one of three left in the state, it was said.

Kellen sat on a bar stool at the counter of Sodas and Things and ordered a bubble gum flavored ice cream cone. He recounted memories with the soda jerks working on the other side of the bar. One of the women’s nephews used to serve him his ice cream. Kellen went to school with their sons.

His family moved to Underwood before he was born because his dad got a job at the town’s school. They’re a transplant family, like so many others in Underwood, except that most others moved to work in the coal mine or nearby plant.

Gail Leidholm, one of the soda jerks at Sodas and Things, moved to Underwood in 1979 when she married a local. She said at that time the town population was at a high (over 1,000) because the coal plant was being built. The congestion showed in the overflowing state of the trailer courts.

It’s quieter now. This year, Underwood High School graduated about 16 seniors. Kellen started high school in a class of 40, but by the time he graduated in 2001, the class was down to 33.

]]> http://www.hadleyphotographyessence.com/2010/06/14/underwood-nd/feed/ 0 http://www.hadleyphotographyessence.com/2010/06/12/the-middle-of-nowhere/ http://www.hadleyphotographyessence.com/2010/06/12/the-middle-of-nowhere/#comments Sat, 12 Jun 2010 23:20:55 +0000 admin http://www.hadleyphotographyessence.com/?p=119 While driving from Minot to Grand Forks this morning, Taryn spotted this old run-down church somewhere along Highway 2, outside of Rugby.  We were intrigued, so we pulled over so I could snap a few pictures.

As I walked closer, I saw a sign indicating it to be a former church-school, built in 1915.  Its doors were boarded off, but the gate to the property remained propped open.  I photographed the cracked foundation; the decaying wood; the cross once prominently lit by indoor lights, now faded and barely noticeable.  The cemetery behind housed aged gravestones and – to my surprise – many had fresh flowers set upon them.

I hopped back in the car and headed back to Highway 2 and asked Taryn, “Why are we so fascinated by old buildings?”  This wasn’t the first we had visited and photographed in our travels this week.  She pondered and recalled a friend who explained it in this way: “It’s the imperfections.  There is beauty in the imperfections.”  I agreed, but the explanation seemed incomplete.

I think it’s the romance.  The what-if.  And the what-was.

It’s imagining the community building the church in 1915 – a place to practice their faith and seek community in the midst of their hard work and harsh winters.  Picturing it unfaded and unbroken, teeming with life and news and the sounds of horses roped outside.

It’s hearing the children playing outside after a long day of learning, before beginning their long walks home and evenings of chores.  It’s laughing at the thought that those children became grandparents who talked of the years they walked for hours to and from school.

It’s the question, who is bringing flowers to these old graves? and seeing the old woman placing them delicately while remembering her husband of years and years.

It’s looking to the North, South, East, and West and wondering, who came here?

Maybe we’ve spent too much time in the car, making up stories for abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere.

But “the middle of nowhere” is no longer nowhere.  It’s beautiful scenery filled with stories and people and rich culture that I have never known but am beginning to deeply appreciate.

-Kendra

I learned very quickly this week that my imagination had no idea what it was getting into.

Lesson #1: The 2-year-old always wins.

Hadley is…charming. She has quickly swept every person we’ve met off his or her feet, which is helpful in making everyone comfortable and excited to talk to us.

Hadley is also a terror. We’ve spoiled her rotten with books and movies and toys so that she will be content to ride in the car. The problem is, sometimes we have to take those things away so she can, you know, sleep or something. She talks in this whiny voice that makes me want to tear my hair out. Kendra looks at me like she’s thinking, “Back away from my daughter.”

She’s adorable and selfish and whiny and all of this is part of her charm. It’s nothing to cry about. Actually, Kendra and I tend to laugh because we know, in the end, she’s an amazing little girl who, we’ve realized, needs time away from us almost as often as we crave time away from her. On more than one occasion, she told us we weren’t allowed to play with her. Ha, fine by me.

Lesson #2: I am introverted.

I’ve know that forever, but nothing drives home the point like spending six hours a day talking with strangers. It’s exhausting.

Lession #3: I don’t care because I love it.

North Dakotans really are some of the sweetest people I’ve ever encountered. We’ve stopped in Underwood, ND where we witnessed a friend walk down the street and literally know everyone who passed. We got ice cream from Sodas and Things, a knick-knack souvenir-type store with one of the last original soda fountains in the state. We sat on bar stools and it was awesome.

We spent yesterday in and around Watford City, ND. A family showed us around their ranch, secretly fed Hadley M&Ms (becoming her best friends) and made us wish we could stay longer. Another rancher took us up this winding hillside to see an old abandoned farmstead. Most of the buildings had collapsed. We’ve seen some of the most beautiful landscapes. I have to keep reminding myself that we are, in fact, still in North Dakota.

Lesson #4: The 2-year-old ALWAYS wins.

No matter how loud you turn up your music, you’ll still end the day with one of the Dora the Explorer songs stuck in your head.

Lesson #5: I will never have enough energy.

It’s going to take a lot of effort to sit down and write after a long day of interviews. I will do my best to blog about each town as soon after we visited as possible, but the more we visit, the more difficult it will be to keep up. So expect blogs like this, where we write about our reactions and about any unexpected things, and the mini town profiles will come soon.

With that said, we are having a blast. As often as Hadley makes us crazy, she makes us laugh more. And as a 26-year-old who plans to live in Underwood forever said, “It’s all about the people.”

T

P.S. What do you think of our logo? My good friend Justin Boetel, a graphic design student at the Art Institute in Minneapolis, made it for us. We love it.

But, of course, there was much to be done before we could actually leave.  The house was a mess and, knowing we were going to have to return eventually, we opted to clean first rather than come home to mold or stink or messy frustration.  Unfortunately, cleaning with a two-year-old present is a task insurmountable in its own, for every toy that is put in its place, three more are newly discovered that simply must be played with Right. Now.  While cleaning I discovered laundry, the need for cat food, the need for someone to feed the cat, the un-mailed gifts and clients’ albums and CDs and invoices and receipts, unpaid bills, undeposited checks, and the list goes on.  We began packing at 8am and left town by 4:30pm.  A car filled with toys and books and electronics and camera equipment and clothes and shoes and who-knows-what driving down the road with no particular destination in mind.

Well, sort of.  We knew we could end up in Williston on Wednesday and have a place to stay until Friday; we knew by the weekend we’d be back on the eastern side of the state, and home again by Tuesday.  We knew our parents were in Bismarck with a floor, a couch, and a pack-n-play where we could sleep while figuring out what to do with our first couple of days.  And we knew that leaving town was the hardest part.  So away we went.

Taryn cranked up the music, I plugged in my computer, we handed Hadley her box of markers and a coloring book; we settled into our seats.

Taryn pulled onto I-94 East.

(For those of you unfamiliar with geography, it was the Wrong. Way.)

Not a perfect start to this summer of adventures, but a start nonetheless.

- Kendra

ready to be on the road

I’m sorry to say you haven’t missed anything since we last posted. We’ve had two weddings each of the last two weekends and I think we were asking too much of ourselves when it came to pre-planning. But tomorrow is the big day. We’re headed out tomorrow afternoon after we pack up the car and finalize a few things.

We are headed to the western side of the state. We have a good friend in Williston, ND whose family lives in Watford City. She has said she can connect us with people in multiple towns. So we’re hitting the road, hoping the contacts we will make will start us off on the right foot, and praying we can survive the long hours we’re destined to spend in the car. I should probably pack.

And so the adventure begins!

T

As the newcomer to their routine, I don’t really understand. If it’s a drop-in, it seems unlikely that Hadley will know the children playing. Nevertheless, Hadley gets so excited when she’s going to go see her friends. She says it over and over, “Mom! I wanna go play with my friends!”

Then today, Kendra had a photo session scheduled for a baby. She explained to Hadley that soon the client was coming over and then Hadley would have to play upstairs while Mommy took pictures in the studio in the basement. Hadley translated: friends are coming over?

Don’t you love when children say such adorable and innocent and profound things without knowing it? It’s why Hadley is our inspiration. Everywhere we go this summer, we are going to meet new friends. We’re going to – hopefully – become a part of their lives for a day or two or three and – hopefully – by the end, we will have something for you to see or read that will make you feel like they’re your friends too.

It’s not terribly important. She just made me think.

T