Homecomer Interviews

Homecomers What I've learned from Homecomers Reflection on Homecomer interviews
		Note: None of these farmers is Dave! St. Paul Farmer's Market, 9/28/1968. Minnesota Historical Society.
Jean Porterfield Associate Professor of Biology St. Olaf College	Gordon Cumming Executive Director Cannon River Watershed Project	Dave Legvold No-Till Farmer, retired teacher Northfield, Minnesota
Jean spent 8th grade through high school graduation living in Northfield. A tenure track job brought her back to Northfield, and she was glad to return. Her parents live in Northfield, and her family has very deep roots in Minnesota. Her Minnesota relatives were original Swedish homesteading immigrants. Jean told me a story about how her great-uncle and aunt now only live part-time at their farm. Jean was invited to take plants out of her great-aunt's garden. This is special to her because the plants continue to grow, but are now tended by her, not her great-aunt. They're family plants, passed down a generation. (Links require quicktime) Listen to Jean's explanation of the plants Listen to Jean explain her feelings about returning to Northfield "Help you remember where you came from"	Gordon came to St. Olaf College for two years, and has since returned to the area to work with the Cannon River Watershed Project based out of St. Olaf's SNAP farm. Gordon feels like he has a special understanding of community and environmental issues here in Northfield, almost as much of an understanding as his original home out West, because he spent time in Northfield as a student at St. Olaf College . (Links require quicktime) Listen to Gordon explain why he feels that his experience living in Northfield makes him especially well qualified to work with the Cannon River Watershed project.	Dave is the second generation of his family to live in Northfield area (his sons being the third). As a child, he remembers how highly his parents valued education. His parents paid for him to go to Northfield Schools until Dundas and Northfield formed a unified school district. That value of education stuck with him throughout his life. He worked as an elementary school teacher in Richfield for many years, before he moved his family back to Northfield, so that his sons could go to Northfield High School, the same high school that he and his wife both graduated from. Dave has worked in education in many capacities. He's served out formative roles at environmental learning centers in Minnesota, and currently does a lot of work with the environmental studies students of St. Olaf College.

What I have learned from Homecomers. (please see the homecomer page as well)
Each person I interviewed had amazing stories, that they readily shared with me without too much prodding. What I've learned from this process, is that everyone has a story. When people share their stories, they share little parts of who they are.	Homecomers like to tell their stories. Homecomers value their stories. Homecomers value family and jobs.	I thought that the homecomers that I interviewed, (a biology professor, the director of an environmental non-profit, and a farmer) would have an overwhelming environmental connection to the lands where they had grown up, and had chosen to return to. They do have a strong connection to the land, and I shouldn't misplace the importance of that fact. However, what I learned was primarily that, people come home to places because their families are there, or because of the availability of jobs.

Reflection on Homecomers interviews.

My homecomer interviews helped focus my project. Each interview offered a new way to look at my project, a new direction for it to grow, another question that I hadn't asked.

My first interview was with Gordon Cumming, and I didn't know his homecoming story at all. The interview went well, and I gathered good information, but not very many stories. He had a homecoming story about Northfield, but he'd only been a student here, and although he works in Northfield, he doesn't live in the community. I needed a richer homecomer story.

My second interview was with Jean Porterfield. I had tweaked my interview questions a little bit, to try to elicit more stories, and less to gather information about development changes in Northfield. I felt that my project wouldn't be successful, if I couldn't get personal family stories. Stories were the data that I was relying on.

Jean offered many stories, stories about growing up as a kid in Northfield: what they did on the weekends, where they had water fights, she even shared the story of her leaving Northfield for college.

Jean's family in Minnesota were some of the original Swedish immigrants to Minnesota. Which encouraged me to think about generational differences. How could stories be different from different generations? Does the value of a homecomer change over time?

My third and final interview was with Dave Legvold. When I arrived at his farm, he pulled up in his tractor, and the first part of our interview took place in the cab of his tractor. It was fun to look down on the field from the height of a tractor. Riding in the tractor forced me to realize the differences in homecomers. Dave is a farmer. He returned to be a farmer. Farmers could return to a legacy. Dave actually bought a new farm, but many farmers children stay to farm the land that their parents farmed. How is that different than simply returning to the community?

I talked to Dave for a long time about education. The page The Importance of Education is largely inspired by our talk, and my meditation on the future of education, and how to use education as a tool to improve homecoming.

A teacher, a community builder, and a farmer. All of these professions are noble and worthwhile, but the more I've thought about my project, the more I realize the gaps that I sought to fill have only been made wider. What do business people think of Northfield? Parents? Police people? Who hasn't come home and has a good reason?

Each intricacy, upon investigation, opens up a whole new dimension of this project. This project is never ending, and deserves further investigation.

If I have the chance to come back to it during grad school, or later on in my life, I'd love to come home to Northfield too.

Home Page

Project Purpose

What is a Homecomer?

The Importance of Education

Homecomer
Interviews

Works Cited

Many
Thanks