Pie Town Fair: Russell Lee

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  Group of homesteaders in front of the pinto bean warehouse which was used for crop exhibit hall at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940

Way up there in the thin high air of the Divide
to start again
in a dugout house, with a batch of kids, a patch

of pinto beans, a spouse
who'll share that demanding challenge of a meagre land, turn
with you that stingy soil, see and raise your labour

so that come harvest time the match
of effort with intent, toil
with purpose, vision, dream, in that high thin

air, under those pure blue
skies that leap to heaven
from Mount Allegro, will yield the grace

said over the scratched-out bounty
of an ungiving land, relenting
for a moment, offering itself up, at the fair.

  Fruit wagon at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



People at the Fair, Pie Town, New Mexico: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



  Friends meeting at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



Initial pin souvenirs at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



At the Fair, Pie Town, New Mexico: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



 Grace was said before the barbeque was served at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



Cutting the pies and cakes at the barbeque dinner, Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



Serving pinto beans at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair barbeque: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



Serving up the barbeque at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



 Crowd eating free barbeque dinner at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



Men in front of outdoor fire at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940



Rodeo at the Pie Town, New Mexico Fair: photo by Russell Lee, October 1940

 

 

Russell Lee photos from Farm Security Administration Collection, Library of Congress