I had the privilege of growing up in a big family. My mother was one of ten children, and one of two sets of twins. Twins run in the family: my grandfather Walter P. was a twin, my uncles, my mom and her sister, then she had me & my sister; and two of my cousins have already had twins, Anna, and recently Rebecca had a boy and girl.

My grandparents homesteaded in North Dakota, grabbing a plot of land and farming for most their whole life. I never got to see that farm, but the eldest of my cousins did. They got to run around helping Grandpa Walter P. work on the farm, play with the animals, jump around in the hay bales, get chased around by headless chickens.

I was so envious of these stories as I hit my teenage years. They experienced a part of my family that I did not get to and longed for. But nevertheless, I was still a part of this family. We went home to Grandma & Grandpa’s every Christmas or New Year to catch up and hear stories of their past, good family stories. Tradition has been a sneaky common denominator in my family: stories, baking, and singing are all our traditions. We love to sing, we sing every time we got together. “Country Roads” is a big one (of course), “Grandmother’s Feather Bed” was another, and many more that I do not remember at this time.

My grandparents have passed; it has been six, seven years. If you have a minute please read the article written up about my Grandpa Walt to read about his friends and wonderful send-of  https://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/walt-jacobs-going-to-rest-in-coffin-made-by-friends/article_b3ce0c64-5e7f-11e2-a986-001a4bcf887a.html

When clearing out their family home, I volunteered to scan in all of our family slides. My goal was to get these scanned for the upcoming family reunion that we still hold to every two years, in order to look back with everyone and provide reference for my aunts & uncles to tell those good family stories. 

I completed the scanning, but couldn’t make it to the reunion, and they were sent regardless. I’m so happy I completed my goal. I would like to share them here as well; these are family slide photos of the Jacobs from the years 1960 to 1970. These are my favorites from the whole batch of 274 slides I scanned. 

Looking through them, I’m reminded the reason I love photography so much. The feelings from these photos is what I will continually strive for in my own work. Prairie, landscape, origin, animal, experience, and family.