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August 1942. "Fort Kent, Maine (vicinity). FSA clients of French descent on the Maine-Canadian border. Wife of Leonard Gagnon, Acadian FSA client, spinning domestic wool for knitting." 4x5 inch acetate negative by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
I love this view. I can picture in my mind how it would look with a thick mantle of snow.
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/273C-N8S
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183759747/flavie-martin
I couldn't find the family on WikiTree to see if we are related, so I added her: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Martin-79847
I found Leonard Gagnon and his wife, Emma in the 1940 Census. Assuming no changes between then and the 1942 photo, Emma is 41 and the mother of nine children, six daughters and three sons, ranging in age from 18 to 3. Emma definitely needed some quiet time to sit on the porch, in the sun ... alone.
Click to embiggen
When Mrs. Gagnon is done playing, she can get out there and finish plowing the fields!
She has picked a perfect August day to take her spinning wheel out on the porch, to sit in the sun and fresh air. The wool is warm in her lap. She will even get a little tan. She knows soon the leaves around her will change color and there will come the first frost. Before long, everything will be covered by an endless blanket of snow. But that is not today. Today is a perfect day to sit in the sun and spin wool into yarn, and dream of an old love.
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