The lower picture was taken in the late '50s with the windmill showing behind the steel bin. The upper picture was taken in 2009 from about the same direction but closer to the windmill. The large steel bins on the upper picture were added during the interim.

Elaine and I have continued our tradition on her September 3 birthday of driving out past the farms where each of us were raised. The houses have long since been removed and few of the other buildings remain but we have landmarks. The windmill towers at both places are still standing with the wheel and tower both in a state of disrepair, but they mark a spot which we must wrestle with to fit with our memory. At Elaine’s place the barn and corncrib are still there but much closer to the road than they once were. All I have left in addition to the windmill is a walnut tree and possibly an elm tree. The walnut tree is not much larger than it was many years ago and is a lot closer to the windmill. Ours was a unique farmstead with buildings on both sides of a country dirt road. The house, wash house, garage, chicken houses, cob shed and toilet all sat on the north side of the road with the barns, grainy, corn crib, and hog sheds on the south side. Some years ago the owner changed the course of the creek that ran close to the cow barn. He did a lot of dirt moving in the old woodland, orchard, and carrels to enable much of it to be farmed. This along with the buildings being removed changed the whole perspective. The questionable elm tree was right south of the house and less than 10 feet high at the time the house was remodeled in 1950. I picked up the “remains” of one of the blades of the old windmill wheel and part of an old plow lay that were at the base of the windmill when we were out there last fall. They are being added to the rocks, pictures and mostly memories that help recall the difficult but happy days of youth.