Another photo for Sandra Conner’s Thursday’s Windows series. Nearly ten years ago, we stopped to look at a typical late nineteenth century / early twentieth century homestead in South Dakota. The original part of the house, on the left, was excavated out of the side of a hill with a roof and front wall added. Later, the right-hand side was added as a more “normal” house.
But what strikes me most are the curtains in the windows with their determinedly decorative ruffles.
(This really was a family home, until it was eventually abandoned when the owners realized that you just couldn’t make a living by farming here. It’s only a short distance from where the ground crumbles away into the Badlands:
which are and always were hopeless for crops of any sort at all.)
A Number of Things 
What a wonderful detail to notice! There’s a wife out there somewhere saying, “I told you those curtains made it look homey.” š
And, unfortunately, a husband saying “Uh-huh” while thinking about something else entirely! š Thank you.
haha, exactly! š
It was the curtains that struck me to powerfully as well. What a statement they make: in the face of all the negatives, there’s still determination to make a beautiful home. Thanks for sharing this. It really does say a lot.
Thank you! Yes – to me, at least, it’s a strong reminder that these people weren’t just abstractions – they had their dreams and hopes too.
Hard lives and tough decisions in those times …. but as you point out they still made it ‘ Home ‘ complete with frilled curtains. Nice to put the house in place as it were with the picture of Badlands on the doorstep š
Good one Sandra !
Thanks! I debated whether or not to include the second picture, but decided the main part of the story really needed it to set the context. It’s kind of a shock to drive another mile or two and find yourself at the top of a soft cliff with that scene below.
I always think of curtains as being a very English thing š
Well, the house was built by the Brown family, which sounds like an English name to me – I don’t know how long the original settlers had been in this country! Their family might have already lived over here for a couple of centuries, or they might have been fresh off the boat.
But you see lots of curtains here, partly for decoration and partly for privacy š
My house is just over a 114 years old and although i live in the middle of a street but i am lucky i am not over looked by anyone and š
So you weren’t tempted to buy it then?
It would have been a long long drive to work every day! š
What a great eye you have! What beauty that little detail of care has in the desolate house.
Adieu, scribbler
Why, thank you! Yes – those curtains make all the difference in the world, without making the house remotely pretty or luxurious.