Common Ground

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The last half-century has seen the disappearance of the American family farm, and the grave cultural and environmental impact of the resulting suburban sprawl. This film is a 14-year document of this transition, through the personal experience of two families who love the same plot of land in its different reincarnations.

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Main credits

Strazzante, Scott (filmmaker)
Strazzante, Scott (photographer)
Stevens, Chad A. (film producer)

Other credits

Photography, Scott Strazzante; video, Wes Pope; original music, Andy Webster.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

farm, subdivision, diptychs, suburban, sprawl, suburbia, cattle, Cagwin, Grabenhofer, Scott Strazzante, Wes Pope, Chad A. Stevens, Chad Stevens, Brian Storm, Common Ground, Common, Ground, country, land, rural, farmland, urban sprawl, Willow Walk, Harlow Cagwin, Jean Cagwin, Amanda Grabenhofer, Ed Grabenhofer, Another Country, Echoes of the Past; "Common Ground"; MediaStorm

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We were watching

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all of the buildings going down.

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The house was the last
thing that went down.

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Didn\'t take long.

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It was quite an emotional thing for Harlow

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because he lived there all of his life.

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But we knew it was time.

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We just got in the truck
and didn\'t look back.

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I don\'t know. I don\'t know.

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Say it.

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I don\'t know how to say it.

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It wasn\'t. It wasn\'t good

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but that\'s the way it had to be.

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Well, you knew it was going to happen.

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The place was gone. That was the end of it.

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I know that it has afforded us

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and the 300 some other

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houses in this subdivision

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a wonderful opportunity to place roots.

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The land isn\'t ours necessarily.

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God put it here if you will.

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And we\'re just using it.

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The Cagwins were using it before us,

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and we\'re using it now. And
someone else will probably

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use it somewhere down the
road for something else.

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Harlow was a young kid

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when he started milking cows.

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And then he just helped
out wherever he could,

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and then his father got sick.

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And he just took the farm over.

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And he continued working

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until he was

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80, I guess.

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The work on the farm was hard work.

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Harlow is a very strong man,

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and he could do a lot of things.

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Of course, I couldn\'t do what he could do.

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But I did what I could.

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The kids are the reason that
I get up in the morning.

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This home is

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the reason that we enjoy everything we

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do together as a family.

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I have found my home,

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and it will take a lot

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for me to move from this house.

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The saddest thing in the farm
was when the cattle left.

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They were hauled in semi-trailers.

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It was a bad day.

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We liked our animals.

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We just enjoyed them.

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You have to enjoy them to work with them.

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Maybe this stuff shouldn\'t be sold.
I don\'t know.

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Once a house goes up there\'s,

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you don\'t get no more beef or corn.
It\'s gone.

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The particular farmland that
I\'ll miss seeing the most is the

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is the cornfields that were
right behind Ed\'s parents\'

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because now it\'s a Walmart,

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but I\'m at that Walmart every other day.

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So, you know, I can complain
that the cornfields are gone

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and that it\'s disappearing,

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but I\'m using what they are putting there.

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It\'s the next step and the next generation

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that farmland changes to suburban.

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And you still see the
same qualities of life

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even though it\'s no longer farmland.

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Where is the Cagwin Drive?

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It\'s down this way. Right?

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Yeah. No.

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You know you\'re telling me stories.

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Well, where are we at?

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I\'m right, it was on Cagwin.

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Cagwin goes through. This goes down.

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Yeah, you\'re right.

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And this is Cagwin Drive.

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We\'re on Cagwin Drive? Yeah

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I furnish the information and that\'s it.

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Well, this is Amanda. Amanda lives here.

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Hi, Amanda.

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Hi. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.