This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution and its "Stories from Main Street" initiative. The project is intended to capture Americans' impressions and stories about their small-town and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, and thoughts about American democracy. This story is from a group of narratives inspired by the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America."
Carolyn Anderson (00:02): I grew up on a farm in Iowa. I lived about a mile from the country school that my mother went to school at from her kindergarten years through eighth grade, and it had been abandoned for since she had left the eighth grade. That's where my family voted, so it was always fun because that building opened up once a year for voting.
(00:26): So, mom and dad couldn't leave the kids at home alone, so we'd all go, mom and dad would vote, we'd stand in line, talk with the neighbors. They all came from, oh, maybe a mile around because it was just a local voting place for us in Clarence, Iowa.
Asset ID: 2023.03.05.b
