Here's The Most Important Things You'll Leave Behind

See that guy up there on the right? That picture was taken over 120 years ago.

And that pretty little girl on the left? That picture was taken about 90 years or so after that guy's picture. And that is a picture of one of the most important things he left behind.

On the back of the picture of the young man is written: 'Jacob Achterhoff, taken around 1900 at the time when he rode a horse from Flandreau, South Dakota to Leota, Minnesota to meet his wife Grace Menning'.

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And marry they did, eventually having 9 children. Jacob died April 29, 1949, some 6 plus years before I was born. I never got to meet him but one of those 9 kids he and Grace had was my dad.

And that little girl up there is my daughter. So let's see...that would mean the handsome young man would be my daughter's (and my son's) Great-Grandpa. And of course, since that little girl now has 3 kids of here own, and my son has 2 of his own, well that solemn looking guy up there would be their Great-Great-Granddad.

OK, enough of the personal family history. The point is this: You have these same kinds of pictures and may some that are even older. Personal family keepsakes that you'll pass down to the next generation and the next and the next.

Which got me to thinkin'.

I'm coming up on having spent 47 years on-the-air in radio. I'm at that age where a person starts thinking about what he'll leave behind. Oh, not in a sad or morbid way, not at all. But just going through stuff.

And some of that 'stuff' will be people I'll never know, just like that young fella up there left behind wonderful kids, grandkids and great-grandkids and....so many more he never knew, never met.

I think the best things I'll leave behind are the things I love most. Even some things I'll never actually see, touch, hold. I miss that guy up there in that picture. I miss him even though I never met him. He left me with some really precious things.

Randy's Minnesota Memories

Randy McDaniel grew up on a small farm near Leota, Minnesota during the classic baby-boomer years of the 1960s and 1970s. These are his stories of growing up in the idyllic world of southwest Minnesota.

Here Are The 7 Remaining Drive-In Theaters In South Dakota

If you were born last century...you know, in the nineteen hundreds (ugh)...you may have spent a summer evening in the car watching movies. I don't mean on your phone, I mean at the drive-in movie theater!

If you were in Sioux Falls in the 1970s and '80's you may remember seeing Jaws and Indiana Jones at The East Park or the Starlite Drive-In. Both drive-ins opened just after World War 2. The East Park didn't make it out of the '70s, closing in 1978. The Starlite survived long enough to see the birth of home video, closing in 1985.

FLASHBACK: Remember the East Park and Starlite Drive-in Theaters in Sioux Falls?

Drive-in movies had a bit of a resurgence during the pandemic. They were a way to go out and do something social without getting out of your car.

If you tried one during that time, or you remember the fun of a warm summer evening watching movies on that giant screen there are still places in South Dakota and around Sioux Falls you can do it.