It's not a great photo, but I love it anyway. This is my dad around the age of 13, out shoveling the path between unseen buildings, the farmhouse on the right and the woodshed and outhouse on the left. You can barely see the handle of his shovel above the drifts.
Behind Dad is the cedar tree that his own dad loved and his mom disliked. To the left are the granary, tractor shed, and little milk house and windmill, all surrounded by impossibly high drifts.
Today we're digging ourselves out from a big snowstorm in Minneapolis. The main problem is freeing our cars. Dad's chore in 1950 was more basic and urgent—hygiene and heat.
Gordon Marty shoveling snow on the Marty farm, ca. 1950. Photo from an album of Viola Marty.
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