In 1926, Queen Marie planned "one whole day free of government pomp—a day devoted to the farmers of North Dakota, men whose lives, she wrongly supposed, paralleled those of her Roumanian peasants... The Queen wore a plain brown dress for the occasion and no jewelry. 'She said she wanted to talk with North Dakota farmers because they are somewhat similar to those in Roumania,'" a North Dakota farm wife said.
This excerpt was pulled from one of the latest books on my shelf, Hannah Pakula's, The Last Romantic: The Life of the Legendary Marie, Queen of Roumania, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1984), 352.
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Also: I don't know much about the lives of Queen Marie's peasants, so I can't comment on whether my late grand-dad, or late great grand-dad were like them. When Queen Marie visited NoDak back then, both were on the family farm, about forty miles southeast of Bismarck, just on the outskirts of the small town of Braddock (then thriving, now "dead"). I do know they came from what we might today call, "humble origins." Especially on my Swedish grandmother's side, who were located about 130 miles east-north-east of Bismarck. Grandma and Grandpa met at some type of dance — I think it was a barn dance — back in the day. They decided to stick with it, and presto, MFT is here telling JJ that Jolie is a ho-bag, but that JJ still has great taste in women. I digress.
Where the hell are all you saucy bastards this evening?
I'm impressed by the range of books you read -- didn;t even know there was a book about Queen Marie!
Now, farm work everywhere is pretty much the same, yes? Back-breaking, unrelenting labor, but in the end, I think satisfying -- commune with nature, and all that. But in the particulars, there must have been quite a difference between the outlook of farmers in the Baragan and in the Dakotas, circa 1926. To start with, no peasant whatsoever would own a car, or operate any internal-combustion machinery at the time in Romania, I'm pretty sure of that: horses and oxen were the height of technology. But in NDak they must have had Model T's to move around, and tractors and such, yes?
But in NDak they must have had Model T's to move around, and tractors and such, yes?
About that time it was getting more and more necessary to own an automobile. Model Ts were the thing to purchase throughout the 1910s: you could choose from any color, so long as it was black. My great-granddad's first car was a used-Model T, and I think he bought that about the mid-1920s. And tractors and mechanized threshers and all that. There's a group of old-timers who still runs an annual threshing in the fall down around Braddock.
Like you said: there is something about getting one's hands in the soil, and making and watching things grow.
AI, I'm guessing, but is that a photo of Romania? When I have a bit more time, I could locate that photograph a thousand times over, but taken in North Dakota (or Kansas, or Nebraska).
Yes, this is a photo from the Baragan Plain. Best novel about those plains is probably Les Chardons du Baragan, by Panait Istrati. There's a movie made from it -- I know someone who had a bit part in it.
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