Title:
Small Town Life — Minnesota Parades and Idaho Home Scenes
REEL ID:
L064R020
RUN TIME:
00:10:56
FORMAT:
16mm motion picture film
FILM TYPE:
Kodak Kodachrome
SOUND:
Silent (no synchronized sound)
PRODUCTION:
Amateur / personal home movie footage
Description:
This home movie documents small-town celebrations, family recreation, and travel scenes beginning in rural Minnesota and concluding back home in Idaho. Shot on color 16mm film without synchronized sound, the reel captures the rhythms of midcentury community life alongside moments of outdoor leisure and family travel.
The film opens with parade scenes in Montevideo and Dawson, where marching bands move down Main Street, cars pull decorated floats, and a U.S. Navy recruiting float passes local spectators. A vintage firetruck rolls through the parade route, followed by the striking appearance of a horse-drawn hearse—reflecting the civic pride, pageantry, and historical display common to Midwestern parades in the mid-20th century.
Between parade sequences, children play and dance outdoors, and a boy proudly shows off a fish he has caught. Scenic interludes include views of a local lake and dam, followed by people enjoying rides in a motorized boat. Neighborhood scenes show houses along quiet streets, with families posing outside their homes and children playing nearby—anchoring the opening portion of the reel firmly in small-town Minnesota life.
The setting then shifts west as the family returns home to Idaho. Here, the footage expands into rural and recreational scenes: kids ride ponies in a circular enclosure, longhorn rams eat food tossed onto the road, and families explore outdoor spaces together. Mountain travel follows, with hiking on trails, time spent at a mountain lake, and winter scenes of snowball fights and cold-weather recreation.
Additional sequences include visits to a dude ranch, where people ride horses across open land, reinforcing the travel and leisure theme. Backyard life appears again with a family enjoying a swimming pool, while transportation footage shows airplanes and helicopters lined up on a runway, passengers boarding and exiting aircraft, and go-karts racing around a track.
The reel concludes with seasonal family moments in Idaho—children swimming in a lake, playing in the snow, and spending time with their dog in the front yard—closing on familiar, everyday scenes that ground the broader travel footage in home life.
Together, these images form a warm and expansive record of midcentury American life—moving from Minnesota’s small-town parades to Idaho’s rural landscapes and backyard routines.
Tags:
Montevideo Minnesota, Dawson Minnesota, Minnesota parade, Idaho, Home movies, 16mm film, Color home movies, Silent film, Small-town parade, Marching band, Parade floats, U.S. Navy recruiting, Vintage firetruck, Horse-drawn hearse, Community celebration, Children playing, Fishing, Lake and dam, Motorboat, Neighborhood life, Family portrait, Ponies, Rural animals, Mountain hiking, Mountain lake, Snow play, Snowball fight, Dude ranch, Horseback riding, Backyard swimming pool, Aviation, Airplanes, Helicopters, Boarding aircraft, Go-karts, Kids swimming, Dog, Midcentury America, Americana, Analog film, Nostalgic footage, Archival home movie
