I was in the tiny little town of Flandreau, South Dakota. Flandreau, like lots of other small towns across the Midwest USA has grain elevators. They look simultaneously timeless and recently unused. They seem to be the tallest structures in town.
The grounds are neat and tidy though. Everything in the upper midwest seems neat and tidy.
Near the grain elevators is one of the largest quonset huts I’ve ever seen. It also didn’t look to be used but the grass is neatly mowed. The morning that I took all these pics the sky was as gray as the metal on the structures.
This is the Moody County Courthouse. Moody County had its few days in the national news early in 2004 when a jury sitting in this courthouse sent South Dakota’s Governor Bill Janklow to jail for manslaughter for killing a motorcyclist while speeding and running a stoplight. They are still talking about it in town. You don’t want to mess around with the citizens of the rural midwest. If you do they’ll send you somewhere where you can reflect on your actions, for a good long while.
Bars in South Dakota are serious business. You go there to drink. If you want to eat you go to you a restaurant. And no, your kids are definitely not welcome here. Here in Oklahoma if you want to have a bar you have to serve food also. The Bar-X Lounge in Flandreau is a bar’s bar. If you want to buy decent beer in Flandreau (no, Bud Light is NOT decent beer) you go the Bar-X Lounge and stand in a little alcove and get your beer. No unmasculine browsing or looking at a lists or anything, you stand up like a man and see if they got what you want. If you have a problem with that I think it best you don’t say anything about it. Not that I’m trying to tell you what to do or anything.
The best part of the Bar-X is that my Dad and his brother are friends with the owner (or one of the owners or a former owner, I’m not really sure.) Eddie is his name and he is a heck of a guy. I’ve been hearing stories about him all my life and finally got to meet him for a few minutes.
Hey, have you ever wandered around a small town early on a Sunday morning?
Check out the action in Flandreau here.
Love that first grain elevator. Bar-X looks like a no-nonsense kind of place. There used to be several of these establishments in the downtown area of Tulsa, when I was much younger. They were not for the faint of heart, nor the micro-brew, fruit flavor brew, or lite brew crowd. Even Michelob was considered a border line “fancy brew.” Bud, Coors, Miller, Schlitz…in a bottle or on tap…take it or leave it…or just leave.
Great. Yes, everything is neat and tidy in the upper Midwest…they sweep the barnyards.
I wish you had swaggered into the Bar X and asked for a fancy white wine, Yogi. Those moody shots are great – the sky and the buildings meld into a sinister landscape.
I think the metal buildings look especially great under those overcast skies.