THROUGH THE YEARS, I have photographed numerous patriotic scenes and American flags.
Today, in celebration of the birthday of the United States of America, I bring you American patriotism from…
the Stars & Stripes Garage in Heidelberg, Minnesota;
an historic home in Decorah, Iowa,
the Main Street of Montgomery, Minnesota,
and Anywhere, USA.
Happy Fourth, dear readers! Enjoy this holiday and thank God for the freedoms that come with being an American.
© Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
JULY FOURTH in North Morristown is like a step back in time, a true grassroots celebration in the heart of rural southern Minnesota farm land.
A large crowd enjoys a free afternoon concert by Monroe Crossing on July 4, 2013. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
Since 1892—that’s 122 years if you’re counting—Trinity Lutheran Church and School have observed our nation’s birthday, giving it the distinction as the oldest Fourth of July celebration in Minnesota.
The country church and school, and a cluster of several farm sites, are North Morristown, set among fields of corn and soybeans in Rice County west of Faribault.
The Fourth of July celebration is held at the North Morristown festival grounds, pictured here, in southwestern Rice County. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
At 9 a.m. on July 4, stands and games open at the festival grounds across from Trinity. The grounds remain open until after the 10 p.m. fireworks.
This is an event which offers a day of good old-fashioned fun and memory-building for all ages, including the 10 a.m. parade that runs a block, or maybe two.
An overview of the novelties shoppe and games and rides building. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
I can’t recall how many times I’ve been to North Morristown on the Fourth. But enough that I’d recommend this celebration to anyone, especially those seeking a sense of simplicity, community, history, patriotism and Americana. All define the Fourth of July here.
A peek inside the ice cream shoppe. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
From the parade to the flag raising to the patriotic program, medallion hunt, bingo, music, kids’ games and rides, silent auction and, let’s not forget the delicious homemade food, you’ll find it all.
Enjoying a pork sandwich and a beer at the 2013 Fourth of July celebration. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
The homemade pies are to die for as are the BBQ pork and hot beef sandwiches.
Homemade blueberry pie. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
Just a tip. Don’t wait too long to order your slice of pie or you may not get the type you want. Pie sells quickly.
The vintage car ride for kids. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
I love everything about this celebration, but especially the kitschy kids’ rides that appear to have been around forever. I expect second and third generations are riding these rides. This event is definitely family-oriented.
The bluegrass band, Monroe Crossing, has performed at North Morristown the past seven years, presenting two concerts at the celebration. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
Music comprises a major part of the festivities. The well-known bluegrass band, Monroe Crossing, is slated to perform at 1 p.m. and again at 5 p.m. on the main stage. Also on the main stage will be the Roe Family Singers at noon and 4 p.m. and the Mountain Lake Gospel Singers at 7 p.m. There will also be music in the beer garden.
Zinghoppers, a band focused on entertainment for the preschool and elementary-aged crowd, performs at 2:30 p.m.
The bingo callers. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
Visitors stopping by the ice cream shoppe could drop donations for the entertainment into a drop box at last year’s celebration. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo 2013.
Just a few other things you should know: Parking and entertainment are free, although I’d suggest you buy a $1 celebration button and/or donate monies to support the festival. Bring a lawn chair, just in case. There are picnic tables and bleachers but those can fill quickly.
Hot pork and beef sandwiches and cold beverages are served from this stand. Burgers and other foods are also available.
Keep your food and alcoholic beverages at home as they are not allowed onto the church or festival grounds. There’s plenty of great food and drink available for purchase. Lock your vehicles. This may be in the middle of nowhere, but…
Homemade pies and ice cream are served from the pie building. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo.
And did I tell you to order a slice of pie?
© Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Vintage Marketplace in Farmington
I HAPPENED UPON a sweet little shop in Farmington today.
Nancy, left, and Nita.
Nancy, the owner, and Nita, who sells at Vintage Marketplace, provided a warm welcome for my husband and me who were out on one of our “drives.”
This occasional shop at 302 Oak Street in the heart of downtown, is packed with antiques, collectibles and crafty goodness.
A summery, patriotic scene outside the shop.
With the Fourth of July only days away, I turned my camera lens to all things red, white and blue. Be assured, though, that this marketplace is filled with lots of great finds, not just Fourth of July related merchandise.
Here’s a sampling of the patriotic goodness you will discover inside:
However…if you want to purchase anything showcased here, you will have exactly five hours to do so. Nancy’s shop opens at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Sunday, June 29) and closes at 4 p.m. Remember, hers is an occasional shop, meaning she’s open only two weekends a month and on the third Thursday for Ladies Night.
When the Vintage Marketplace reopens on July 17, it will be filled with completely new inventory, Nancy tells me.
This is definitely a shop worth visiting as much for the merchandise as the friendly crew who run it.
FYI: Learn more about Vintage Marketplace by clicking here.
© Copyright 2014 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
I LOVE MY EXTENDED family and our annual tradition of gathering around the Fourth of July.
How many men does it take to grill burgers and brats? These three plus two more.
There’s plenty of food and drink, laughter, smart talk, and displays of patriotism. We end the evening with most of us bunking out on the basement floor or in spare bedrooms, arising the next morning for egg bake and accompanying breakfast foods, and coffee, before heading back to our homes.
A view of Lamberton, Minnesota, just to the south of my brother’s rural acreage.
This year all of my adult children joined my husband and me for the trek to Lamberton in southwestern Minnesota. That, in itself, is cause enough to celebrate as seldom are my three all together. With one daughter five hours away in northeastern Wisconsin and the son soon moving to Boston, I treasure these family times.
My mom, Arlene, made this flag cake. Impressive, huh?
I expect my 82-year-old mom felt the same—happy that five of her six kids and their families could attend.
The youngest attendee, my great nephew Hank, who recently turned one.
Nothing compares to the embracing love of family with whom you share a common bond of memories.
I love this photo of my 19-year-old son, Caleb, picking mullberries with Ari, my great niece.
When the sun disappears from the prairie sky, the sparklers come out, part of the tradition.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
The bluegrass band, Monroe Crossing, has performed at North Morristown the past seven years, presenting two concerts at the celebration this year.
NORTH MORRISTOWN, MINNESOTA, is about as rural Americana as you’ll find anywhere in these United States of America on the Fourth of July.
The event is held at the North Morristown picnic grounds in southwestern Rice County.
Trinity Lutheran Church and School sit across the road from the picnic grounds.
Here, on the picnic grounds of Trinity Lutheran Church and School, generations of families have gathered for 121 years to celebrate our nation’s birthday with family and friends at our state’s oldest Independence Day celebration, begun in 1892.
The vintage car ride for kids.
The day brings old-fashioned games and rides for the kids, bingo, music, a scavenger hunt, a parade, a patriotic program and more. Fireworks shot over farm fields cap the day’s festivities.
Enjoying a pork sandwich and a beer.
And the food, oh, the food. Homemade pies. Savory hot pork and beef sandwiches, burgers, thick onion rings, and more.
A large crowd enjoys a free afternoon concert by Monroe Crossing.
What a day. What a celebration.
One section of a pole shed is dedicated to bingo and a silent auction.
The bingo callers.
Fun for the kids in the games and rides building.
A ticket for the fish pond.
Filling the squirt gun in the duck pond.
Riding the old-fashioned barrel train.
The day’s proceeds benefit Trinity Lutheran School.
Homemade pies and ice cream are served from the pie building.
Blueberry pie.
Hot pork and beef sandwiches and cold beverages are served from this stand.
Visitors stopping by the ice cream shoppe can drop donations for the entertainment into a drop box.
A peek inside the ice cream shoppe.
Enjoying an ice cream cone.
An overview of the novelties shoppe and games and rides and bingo building.
Guess the number of corn kernels in the duct taped jar and win a prize.
A 75-year-old biker arrives at the celebration late in the afternoon on his 1977 Harley.
One of several lists thanking supporters.
Garbage pick up by a 1964 grain truck.
North Morristown is set in the middle of farm fields.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Flag buntings decorate an historic home in the beautiful river town of Decorah, Iowa.
SIGNS OF U.S. PRIDE/patriotism/love of country are evident everywhere this week in small town Midwestern America.
Here are a few examples from a recent short trip into southeastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa.
Enjoy.
And Happy Fourth of July, dear readers.
Chalk art at St. Feriole Island Gardens in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, along the Mississippi River.
Snapped through the windshield of the van, this aged elevator and flag, to the right, entering the Mississippi River town of Marquette, Iowa, from the north.
A few miles to the south in McGregor, Iowa, I found this “God bless America” sticker and humorous welcome on the door of a bar.
I spotted plenty of American flags in the historic Mississippi River town of Lansing, Iowa.
Signs and a flag in Lansing, Iowa.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Photographed in downtown Henderson, Minnesota.
TODAY, WHILE YOU’RE picnicking, gathering with family, drinking beer or sipping lemonade, boating, taking in fireworks… pause to consider the significance of this day.
Freedom.
Liberty.
The pursuit of happiness.
Even though the state of our nation may not always be as we would like, it’s still a pretty sweet country to call home.
Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
The words for “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” are projected onto a screen at the front of Bethel Ridge Lutheran Brethren Church.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you listened to a reading of the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence?
Or the last time you sang “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” or “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” or “God Bless America?”
When did you last place your hand across your heart and recite The Pledge of Allegiance?
Have you ever taken a patriotic quiz and realized how much you’ve forgotten about American history or perhaps never have known?
All four of the above, plus quotes from our nation’s founding fathers and leaders, were included in a Patriotic Program I attended on the Fourth of July at Bethel Ridge Lutheran Brethren Church in Faribault.
An audience overview at the July Fourth Patriotic Program.
Although the number in attendance was small—around 30—I’m quite certain those of us attending left inspired, uplifted and certainly more knowledgeable.
Let’s test your smarts. What’s the longest possible time a person could now serve as President of the United States? What was our nation’s first Constitution called? Who was our country’s first Vice President?
Had you correctly answered those three questions (10, The Articles of Confederation and John Adams) and six more at Bethel’s Patriotic Program, you would have won a Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bar. The winning team missed only one of 10 questions. I cried foul. My team, which included a history major, missed three. I contended to a program leader that, had I known chocolate was on the line, we all would have tried harder.
Performers in a skit recite The Pledge of Allegiance along with audience members. The skit was based on a supposedly true story of an American soldier who was captured by the North Vietnamese. As the story goes, he stitched an American flag inside a shirt using a bamboo needle and fabric from clothing and other items.
Before and after the competition we settled into our pews, listening to quotes by the likes of George Washington, James Madison, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and more.
“It is impossible,” said President George Washington, “to (rightly) govern the world without God and the bible.”
Said President Theodore Roosevelt: “A thorough knowledge of the bible is worth more than a college education.”
And apparently a thorough knowledge of American history is worth a chocolate candy bar.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
IF YOU VISIT the Fargo-Moorhead Sertoma Club website, you will read this:
Sertoma stands for the high and noble service to mankind through communication of thoughts, ideas and concepts to accelerate human progress in health, education, freedom and democracy.
Here a volunteer removes flags posted along Roger Maris Drive in Lindenwood Park on Flag Day.
Then, if you visit Fargo’s largest park, Lindenwood Park, around the Fourth of July or on Labor Day, September 11, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day or Flag Day, you’ll see evidence of that mission. Some 75 American flags line Roger Maris Drive as part of the Sertoma Flag Service project.
I saw the impressive display of flags when I was in Lindenwood on June 14, Flag Day.
Volunteer Bruce Hanson gathers the flags, which typically are posted for several days on holidays and memorable historic occasions.
There I chatted briefly with Sertoman Bruce Hanson as he carried carefully rolled flags from the park grounds and placed them into a Sertoma trailer. The project, he says, has been ongoing in the city for a long time (since 1973, according to the website) and was moved to Lindenwood several years ago. Prior to that, the flags were scattered at businesses throughout Fargo and West Fargo. Grouping all the flags in one place makes more of an impact.
Businesses are still involved, Hanson says, via flag placement sponsorships. Proceeds from the flag project go back to the community.
The Sertoma Freedom Bridge over the Red River, linking Fargo and Moorhead.
I didn’t ask Hanson about the other Sertoma project I noticed in the park, the Sertoma Freedom Bridge, a foot-bridge which links Lindenwood Park on the North Dakota side of the Red River with Gooseberry Mound Park on the Moorhead side.
I photographed my shadow and that of my 18-year-old son on this popular biking and walking bridge.
The bridge closes July 9 for reconstruction and reopens October 1. I did a brief online search and learned that this bridge has been battered more than a few times by the raging floodwaters of the Red River. That was difficult to imagine given the docile nature of the narrow and muddy Red on the June evening I visited Lindenwood Park.
But I was assured by a man and his granddaughter that the river most assuredly spills from its banks and floods the lower park areas.
I’d really like to know more about the history of this pedestrian and bike bridge. When was it built? And why is it pegged “Freedom Bridge?”
You’ll also find this symbol of freedom in Lindenwood Park. This memorial honors the 81 men who lost their lives on the WW II American submarine, the USS Rabalo. Four survived but died as Japanese prisoners of war after the submarine hit a minefield and sunk while passing through the Balabac Strait. The submarine was assigned to North Dakota for establishment of a monument.
The Lindenwood Park monument to baseball player Roger Maris, who was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, but grew up in Fargo. This New York Yankees’ outfielder set a new major baseball league record in 1961 with 61 homeruns. That broke Babe Ruth’s record of 60. Maris was also a Most Valuable Player in the American League several times and played in seven World Series. Fargo is home to the Roger Maris Museum at the West Acres Shopping Center.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, we have much to be thankful for, most notably our freedom. Have a wonderful Fourth of July and enjoy these photos, my gift to you as we celebrate the birth of our great nation.
My great nephew Hank, born on June 20, is celebrating his first Fourth of July.
My daughters light the southwestern Minnesota prairie sky with sparklers at a weekend pre-July Fourth family gathering.
The flag which flies at the home of my middle brother.
Flags line the park area along Highway 169 through St. Peter.
One of my favorite patriotic songs, America the Beautiful.
Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
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