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Lecture 12 was titled he Continuity of Progress. The lecture started off by showing pictures of some of the Great Plains traditions that some towns have. These included the firefighters of Grandin that have a yearly smelt fry and the Corpus Christi tradition of St. Mary's. I was also interested to see the pictures of the Church in Canaan. They had a candle ritual each year at Christmas. The church looked like it was real nice and would be a cool place to see. Dr. Isern also talked about how a rural community can stretch over thousands of miles, because people always come back home for these traditions from wherever they have moved.

Dr. Isern also talked about the interaction between townspeople and farmers on the Great Plains. One thing that stuck out to me was when he talked about how Saturday nights were busy in the town because of all the farmers coming in for supplies. He talked about how the barbers would stay open late these nights. I thought this was interesting because I found a book when I was doing my research for the Big Thing that specifically mentioned how the barber in Rothsay MN would stay open until midnight on Saturdays because of all the haircuts needed. It said he stayed open late but didn't say why Saturdays were so busy, so it was nice to learn why.

Dr. Isern also talked about Carl Krenzel and the idea of the Micropolis. This was an interesting idea and really made sense to me. The idea of the Sutland and Yonland worked for North Dakota and the rest of the plains. This lecture showed us how people on the plains keep traditions for a long time and how people interact.

Mitch Tommerdahl