- This is a production of SDPD.

- I keep thinking that these people that are on the screen like they were last night, are that old timers just coming back to check on us.

Just seems like they were here and this was their town and they were taking good care of it.

- The 1930s, the depression, the drought, no money, no crops, no jobs, but people survived.

Many moved away from their hometown seeking greener pastures, but many more stayed.

They kept believing things would get better.

In Britain, South Dakota, probably a typical hometown in these United States.

People didn't allow the Great Depression or anything else to get them down.

In fact, an enterprising theater owner and his faithful projectionist decided to make movies of their hometown and of the people that stayed behind over 50 years ago, these films were first seen by Britain's finest.

Since that time, people still seek greener pastures elsewhere.

Crop prices are still low, but people continue to dream, hope and thrive in their hometown of 1500 citizens, one longtime resident and the maker of these films.

Ivan Bessie was a projectionist at Britain's Strand Theater for 67 years.

- Strand was started with, the grand opening was in 1915.

It was built by Claude Baker who had a theater down the street about a block called The Old Dreamland.

It was a frame building and he built this new one.

The Strand by, oh, started in the 14, I suppose, during the war.

And I went into it, it'd been going about four years, I guess when I got my first job there, we were going broke as that plane.

It was during National Depression, depression all over.

And then we had a little rougher because we had no crop, we had no rain for two years.

It was just drying a bone.

Everything was, wasn't even grass and we had to close down part-time.

And we heard about it full of it.

Ran an outfit like this.

So we went to see him to visit with him and he told that he'd get along pretty good with it.

On the way home, the bus is a fly by the outfit.

I know you take of it.

And he says, I don't want nothing to do with it because I dunno anything about it anyway.

And I said, sure I would.

Otherwise, we'd have cut out part of the business and I'd have cut out part of my salary.

So that's how we got started on it.

I never took pictures before of any kind.

I wasn't a camera bug or anything like that, so I just went out and took a guess at it.

And I was lucky I kept the sun where it should be and that type of thing.

And it was a gimmick just to get more people into theater.

And that was all - From 1938 to 1940, Ivan Bessie filmed everyone and everything in Britain.

Anything of social or personal significance?

Ivan shot on 16 millimeter film and then would narrate the final unedited version before the Tuesday and Wednesday night movie at The Strand.

After working at the theater for over 30 years, Ivan finally bought the strand of the 1950s.

He owned and operated the Grand place until 1987, at which time he finally sold the theater and everything in it.

- It was sold here at Britain.

We had a, an auction sale and we had a great big box of the film and it was no good to anybody that we know of, you know, and somebody bought it for 50 cents, the whole box, and then somebody in Texas and then it found its way into Rick's possession and he's revamped it.

And now it's a wonderful piece of work.

- Most of our images of the thirties, especially the depression, turn out to be cliches.

We remember the dust ball, we remember bread lines or the Hindenburg being blown up.

These are a lot more real.

These are ordinary people going about their everyday activities.

There's some ceremony and ritual, but most of the time it's just ordinary life on Main Street.

That's pretty important.

Body language fashions, people's relation to the camera, all of that is kind of unusual and it's documented in such detail.

Then I think these are pretty special.

- I heard about it from friends who know that I, you know, they're in New York, they read the New Yorker and they know I'm from Britain, South Dakota, and they read the line that says the films have been filmed in Britain, South Dakota.

And so I did my research to find the article and then ultimately looked for to for Rick Prelinger in New York.

And that's where I found him - In May of 1991.

The films made their second debut at The Strand Theater.

Ivan Bessie, again narrated the films just as he did 50 years before people yelled out names, delighted to see their family, friends, and neighbors as they once were.

50 years ago, not only did the two and a half hours worth of films bring back memories, but also a renewed hometown.

Pride - Britain is where the west begins as you go from Britain West.

Why people are more, I would say, friendly, open as you go east from Britain.

Why?

Then they begin to be more, I don't know exactly how to describe it, but they, they, they kind of mind their own business and, and, and don't worry about somebody else.

- Well, let's see, I, I suppose Britain's typical of most small towns in South Dakota, but we think we're special.

Of course, we had a panel in Britain not too long ago that were interviewing people and after they finished about Britain and what they liked about Britain.

And I said, well, what did you think of what we said?

And she said, why do you all apologize for liking to live here?

She felt that we were apologizing.

- These are the people on Main Street of Britain, farmers, laborers, townspeople gathering on the street wondering what's going to happen next.

Here comes a Za Carter Za was quite a character in her own way.

She ran a dress shop in the cleanest place in town because every time you come to her door, she would stop you.

You'd take off your shoes before you came into her shop.

She never had to worry about scrubbing.

- And it really allows you, you see people come in again and again and you see the same buildings and places appear and you really, you're not just a quick hit and run view, you just get a, you get an excellent chance to get kind of deeply into the life of a community.

- I think this is a shot in front of the strand.

We advertised that all kitties would have the picture taken if they'd come to the theater on a certain day.

You'll notice that most of 'em are pretty well shined and polished and ready.

Some of them would just stand and realize it was a movie.

So we had to tell 'em to move.

But the little Tads, they just were in wonderment.

The dog had to get into the act.

How hard was it?

- Oh, so hard.

You won't believe it if I tell you - To the book, it sharp.

I lost all my money and now I have love this hard boy boy.

Hard when you down.

Mad up.

- Everybody was broke.

Dust blues.

You had the lamp lit all day long order.

Did you see what you Well the folks were in Britain and they didn't get home with the car 'cause they couldn't see the drive.

So they stopped out at the edge of the hills out here.

Free bull place.

Remember that?

We had the lamp lit in the house all the time.

Oh yeah.

Afternoon.

So no, it was - Bad.

And all the first couple of weeks out I was a little backward about walking up, sticking in somebody's face, you know, that type of thing.

But after the first month it got to be kind of fun.

I enjoyed it.

And we'd run one, one rail, which was 10 minutes, a hundred feet.

And we'd run that on a Tuesday Wednesday and the next Tuesday, Wednesday we'd run another reel.

It might be part of school activities with a few people on, on the main street and thrown in.

I'd take pictures any place I was, any place I could see something And we didn't amp so we might have a snowstorm and next time they run around short sleeves or something like that.

There wasn't much rhyme or reason, but what we were trying to do is get the people on the street to get 'em to come in the theater and see themselves on the big silver screen.

That was the main thing that worked.

Worked good.

- We drove the Model T without a heater and side curtains on.

And by the time we got to Britain around the, well, I guess it was probably gravel, but it sure wasn't oiled.

But we had 14 miles to town and by the time you got there and that modeled tee used to froze up in the winter time that we jumped in on the furnace in the JCPenney building, they had one of those square furnaces in the floor holding the floor with all the heat come up, you know, to get thawed out.

June, our feet were just like ice.

We got there.

- Britain is located on the north south continental divide and I think I'd forgotten from my grade school geography that there was a north south divide.

We always hear about the east and west, but where you're standing here in front of my home on Main Street, the water flows to Hudson Bay and if you're on the south end of Main Street, it goes down to the Gulf of Mexico.

And I think that's a very interesting fact.

- These are just shots of some of our local fellows sitting around visiting, having a cigarette.

Watch this guy on the right, he gets the light from the guy on the left.

Then he puts his box of matches in his own pocket, he never gets it back.

I always liked that scene.

- They accused me first of being the sewer mayor because I worked so hard to get a sewer project on the south side of town.

But I said, if you've ever answered the phone and had somebody tell you the sewer is overflowing in your basement and the anguish in their tone, you know how important it is.

- I was born in this house - In 1919 and I've lived here ever since we were married.

I think we moved in here in 1946.

- Then they said I'm the parks mayor because I'm very, very interested in the parks.

We've bought some land across the street here that we've added to our park and we have a new tennis court and we have a new park on the north, on the south side of town where there were lots of children that they didn't have any.

- This is a good sign of spring.

I see a bunch of boys around in a circle with a marbles on the ground, shooting marbles.

Every kid would start out with so many marbles in his pocket and night he'd go home.

He might have a bigger pocket full or he may not have any.

That was the kid's way of gambling and it was, it was a sure sign of spring and they'd start the bank in a big circle and get out on their haunches and play markets.

- How long have you lived in Britain?

- 77 years.

- Were you born here?

- Born here, right up the end of this street.

Six blocks up the street.

- I suppose the most important thing to a city, right to our city right now is the water supply.

The EPA regulations are getting tougher and tougher about what we have to have.

And our water plant is 25 years old and needs renovation.

- Ladies coming down the street, all in dresses.

You very seldom see a lady in slacks.

In fact, I don't think they knew what slacks were in those days.

Even the little girls are dressed in dresses.

Men usually have hats.

Ladies almost always do fully dressed when they hit Main Street.

- The house was bought by my mother in 19 five before she was even married.

She was a school teacher then and she was later county superintendent of the schools.

And she bought it in 19 five at a price of $800.

- And of course everybody laughs but dogs are a problem in every city and they are here.

People call about dogs running loose or dogs and we have a a problem about that, that's a little thing but an aggravating thing.

- They did have dogs around.

Every guy had a dog and they'd tag them around town and never pay any attention, never had any problems that I knew of.

And now of course you've got, you've gotta have shots, they gotta have a collar, you gotta have a license besides that, you gotta have a string on 'em.

So, so long, you know.

But there were a lot of dogs.

Kids had 'em and grownups had 'em as well.

Part of the growing up.

- It was a good place to make a living and raise a family and we enjoyed it here.

We've been many places and we always like to come back and think this is the best place you can find.

- I think there, there have been a number of people who have moved back here just to get away from the traffic of cities and so - Forth.

Especially when you get older.

When I was talking about moving out here, my two cousins who live here were visiting me in Minneapolis.

And one said to the other, well what will Bertha do when she goes to to Britain now?

What was she, how does she occupy her time?

And the other one said, well there's church that'll take six days a week.

All she needs to worry about is what to do on the seventh.

And with all due respect to my good church, that's a little bit true.

Well everyone should have just a little bit of discipline in their life, even if they're retired.

So I do have exercise class at 10 o'clock on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

And I try to attend quite faithfully.

Well one, I think it's a very comfortable, easy place to live.

And it's a place where I have many memories and good associations from my childhood and high school and even into college days.

The people are friendly and I guess I just like, I'm a small town girl.

Maybe that's it.

- Our town was a good town.

There were good people in it and workers, they had to be to compete with the other small towns around.

It was the county seat and the largest town in the group or in within our county.

- As in most counties, agriculture's the main industry in Marshall County raising crops and livestock have historically maintained counties and small towns throughout our history.

Family farms and livestock operations continue to maintain Britain - Since 1935.

We lived on this place.

My brother and I started batching here in 1935 and we batched till in 1939.

I got married and he was trucking at that time.

And then he went to the army in 42 and was there until 46.

So and later on then he moved to Minnesota.

That was in 49.

Yeah.

And he is been there ever since.

So I've been here alone or that is run the place since.

Since then.

Farming in the thirties was all horses.

The early thirties at least the later thirties.

They got some, yeah, they got some tractors I don't think, I don't think we had a tractor in in Yeah, we did too.

Can't tell you now.

We had a cross, cross motor case.

I believe it was the first plow tractor we ever had.

And that would be in the thirties though, right?

- I think the sig, single largest industry in Marshall County, of course is raising cattle.

We have some of the best cattle in the United States right here in Marshall County and we're very proud of that.

I think they figured a couple of years ago there were $50 million worth of cattle sold in Marshall County.

The sale barn is a big part of our economy too.

When the sail barn was closed and it was for about a year and a half.

And when it was reopened, it was great rejoicing, not only among the farmers but among the people in Britain.

- Well if I'm supposed to describe the soil in this area, I'll say some of the best in the United States, but we haven't got the climate to go with it.

- And they fired the shotguns.

It was time to go.

And they had the wagons would go down a row and each farmer would pick as much corn as he could and give him time.

And they were all shooting for the big prize because it was big.

And the guy that won was prized was $3.

And they worked hard to get that $3.

It $3 50 years ago was a lot of money.

- Well I, I did pretty well in the, in the state contest.

So because I got right in the middle and both my, my brother that you saw tonight, my older brother, he won the first corn picking contest we had in this county and then I won two after that.

Let's suppose there's a cornstalk here with an ear on it and you grab the ear with this hand and, and you rip the husk.

Your hook sits right in here somewhere.

You rip the husk open with this hand and then you pick the the ear out of the rest of the husk.

You kind of pull that back with the left hand and then you put the ear out of there in the wagon.

That building, - Well everybody that you've seeing in these pictures had someplace to go and something to do each of these in his own way had his own job and he'd go about it, do his work.

I don't know that it's that much different except that it's different in the way it's done.

It would probably take three or four men to handle the same job that one man will do.

Now there were no machines or equipment or factories, no tractors or anything like that to work with.

It had to be straight hand.

- Important industries, manufacturers primarily fan clutches for diesel trucks.

We refer to 'em as a class eight diesel truck.

Others may recognize it as the 18 wheeler that goes up and down the highway.

We probably generate now the a salary of about a million and a half dollars per year coming into the community.

And we expect to continue to grow.

- Well I think Britain would have some very difficult, would've had some very difficult times if it weren't for Horton's and for trust Pros.

Have you been out to Trust Pros?

- Trust Pros was incorporated in 1978 and we started in Britain and we're still here currently.

We have, I believe it's 28 total people working right now.

And in the summer and fall of the year, we'll have sometimes 35 maybe up to 40 people that will be working.

- I'm Jackman from the Jack Hammer, Jack Jackman from the Jack Hammer on the hammer down Jack.

- This is a WPA project.

It was a godsend back there because in the thirties, as I said, there was no work, no nothing.

So Uncle Sam stepped in, he had the WPA projects and this is one of 'em.

They went out east of town and built a dam, formed a lake and it's a very good one now.

But these are the men, most of them are in town that are working in town stores and that type of thing.

And they're all lined up with WPA because that was the only thing that was, there was no work have the municipal pool was built and I think most of it was built back in the WPA days and then they put on the finishing doctors the city did afterwards.

It's a wonderful place for the youngsters to go in the summer and it's hot.

- One thing that intrigues me a great deal about the film is people's reaction to the camera.

Today, when people are are shot on video, they tend to mug, they tend to wave.

They're very actively involved.

They recognize the camera, they kind of play along with it.

In those days, just about everybody was embarrassed.

They hid, they didn't wanna look stupid.

And it was, you know, very much an earlier sort of age in the history of the media when people weren't so sure that they wanted their lives invaded.

So there's a real fun interplay like that.

I like Christmas a lot too.

- You better watch out.

You better not cry, you better not thought.

I'm telling you why, why Santa Claus is coming to time Gather wrong.

He's making a list, checking it twice.

He's going to find out who's naughty and nice.

Santa Claus is coming to time.

- He's sees you when you are sleeping.

He knows when you are awake.

- He knows if you've been bad or good.

So good goodness.

Goodness saying you better watch out out.

You better not cry.

You better not fall new - With little tin horns, little toy drums, Rudy Twos and Ram Tum.

Santa Clause is coming to Tide and curly head dolls Todd and cool elephant boat and kitty cars too.

Santa Claus is - The kids and girls in Boyland will have a jubilee that's gonna build a toy town all around the Christmas dream.

You better watch out.

You better not cry, you better not pop.

I'm telling you why Santa cause - Coming two times the big events like Christmas capture the spirit of the community.

But many of the personal recollections of the films are of little events.

Events that capture one life at a time.

- I was washing windows at Herman Johnson's grocery store.

I remember seeing that one then out at the cemetery.

I think the Firing Squad probably was out there that that day I suppose it was Memorial Day and I was trying to get a picture of Ivan Bessie when he was taking pictures.

- The ones of my sister of course brought it back a lot of sentiment because she was a very special a down syndrome child and someone who was older than I.

But my closest playmate I suppose during my younger years and someone who died when I was five years old.

- Yeah, we were dressed up in our cowboy hats.

It was probably at a a homecoming parade or something when we used to bring our horses in our ponies and ride in the parade.

- Well and then I'm like I told you, in the one on the horse hitting the parade on homecoming, - We always had the parades with the bands.

In fact we had a little band, school band.

It was a marching band.

We were on Main Street for every event that hit, no matter what it was, four H Club or the big game or anything.

But that band was there.

It seemed to be a cooperation between the town and the school and the farmers and all that.

We since have lost in these 50 years were wonderful times.

The town was wonderful.

The people were there are the parades and the vehicles that made the parades.

It's odd to note the cars as they go along different makes different models.

And this was all 50 years ago.

This is a parade in which everybody takes part.

Each merchant would have his own name on his car or his truck and have it decorated up and ready to go.

And we were out to beat Clark.

Clark was the enemy of that day, trying very hard to beat them 50 years ago.

We were probably still trying to beat them.

Now the football game was a must.

Everybody turned out for that.

Our football team was about average.

They'd win and they'd lose, but they'd draw a crowd.

Of course in those days there wasn't as much entertainment as there is now.

There was no tv, very few radios, anything of that type.

So while it was left was the game or whatever was happening in the town, but whatever was happening, everybody had a finger in it.

Athletics were an important part of our school or of our whole system.

Everybody turned out for football or basketball or track or whatever the kids were doing.

That was one of the big ways of getting entertained in our town.

The field that there would play on back in those days was just over in somebody's backyard or somebody's vacant lot.

And we'd use 'em for our football field.

Same way with track or anything like that.

Didn't have any trouble getting them to pose for me.

I think it's mostly the boys that came back.

The girls went to college and found a boy or a job or something and didn't come back.

There's more of the old time men around that I knew than there are in the ladies.

It's amazing.

Back in those days is how a couple would be together in high school.

School day sweethearts.

And how many of 'em are married and living here in Britain now?

Okay.

- Well he went in the service then in in 40, 41 and that's when I went to college in 40.

And so I was gone too then.

And then we got married in 42 and so we didn't return to Britain until 40 end of 45.

We were gone.

Well when you have a family business is one thing that keeps him in town.

You know, he came back and joined his brother in their store and they were in business until two years ago.

- So I, I felt that when I came back to South Dakota that I would probably get into electronics.

At that time it was radio but television was just ahead.

We didn't get television here until 1953.

But I was prepared because I had gone to Chicago and gone to a trade school and and learned to repair televisions.

- We had so many more stores back in those days.

It seems we had three or four blocks of business places where now two blocks handles it pretty well.

I don't know whether they work together and consolidate or what they've done.

- We're standing in front of the former Downey Jewelry and Radio, TV building.

This is a building that my father built in 1919 for a jewelry store.

He started in business in 19 six in Britain as a jeweler and was in a another building prior to this time, a little farther down the street.

Then in 1919 he built this for a jewelry store.

- Most of them, their husbands were gone and had passed away and the women went on running a place.

We had the lady in the dress shop, a lady in insurance, another lady in the store just went by and our stores were larger then than they are now.

Oh dry.

Good store for instance, man would own the place he and his wife, but he'd have two or three of the ladies working for him.

- I had a heart attack in 89 and we had about decided then to have a closing out sale.

And we think maybe that this stress from getting ready for this sale may have had something to do with my heart attack.

- Many people say life was simpler in the thirties.

There wasn't as much stress on people like there is today.

People born since the films are made have grown up trying to keep pace with the rest of the world.

How has Britain changed?

How are the children that are growing up today coping with this ever-changing world?

The Hair Hut is an in-home business run by mother of four Lana Shot.

- I've lived here all my life.

I'm 39 years old tomorrow.

My grand grandparents lived here, my grandparents and my mother and dad.

- So it's really a family tradition to keep living here.

- My children I'm sure will not plan to stay here.

They're going off to college of course.

You know, my three have an 18-year-old, two 17 and Lacey will be seven in June.

- And you don't think they'll stay in Britain?

- No one wants to be a pharmacist and one wants to be into physical therapy and one wants to be a teacher and I think they'll move to a bigger area.

- I, I mean I like it.

Get closer, closer to your classmates and you know everybody who's graduating in your class and it's a lot special or a lot more special than you think it would be.

'cause I have realized it this year 'cause I'm a senior and I'm gonna be graduating.

I love it.

It's, it's it's, it's good to like be so happy with everybody that you're gonna graduate and I like it.

- Now how many people are in your graduating class?

- 37.

- Someone called me and asked me why Britain's population had gone down in the last, in this last census.

Because in the other years we've gone up just a few.

And this year we went down quite a few and I said because of birth control and they didn't like that.

But when my youngest daughter graduated in 78, there were 78 seniors - And that was the big crop we had.

We had more kids than anything in the world.

Didn't know how to keep from having them.

Probably as about half of it, - There are only half as many kids.

We have as many adults as we've ever had.

It's the families that are smaller.

I had six children and a lot of my friends had five or six, four or five or six.

And now the young people have one or two children and they're just, it's the young people that we're missing.

- Weird.

I mean that's strange 'cause they had children so much more young and I mean I'm 18 and it wouldn't be like, it wouldn't be very much out of the ordinary if I would have a child or be going to have a child and get married.

Can't figure.

I mean that's, there's no way I could, I mean I'd never be ready for that.

And even my mom, just like her age, I mean she, she's telling me how when she was a senior in high school, like, I mean it wasn't, it wasn't just her, it was a lot of girls her age we're like looking forward to like getting married.

Like she couldn't, she was hoping that she'd get married soon and then have kids and I'm no way.

I mean, no, that's not what I'm thinking of.

I'm thinking more of college and still I feel so much more young.

I don't feel like I should be that old yet.

Still feel like a kid.

- A lot of the, a lot of boys that live out in the country work on their dad's farm.

So I'm sure they'll be taking over their farming once, you know, the dads get older, can't be, aren't able to do as much as they are now.

So I suppose kids will be taking over.

That's what I think right now anyway.

So.

- So what do you think is your future in, in terms of farming?

- Well I hopefully plan as of right now, I hopefully plan to come back here after I get outta college and work live on this farm and probably work on this farm.

- Women are, have play a whole different role.

I mean they're just not gonna, I'm, I don't plan on living in Britain and getting married with someone who works on a farm and having children.

I mean we're, we're all have different ideas for what we're gonna do for careers and what we're gonna do in our lives.

And basically we make that for ourselves before we follow the men.

And a lot of these, well a lot of them just, not a lot but some of the guys in my class will stay on farm probably with their, with their dads a great place and stuff.

I mean definitely it's a perfect place to do that.

And just the women just aren't playing that role as just being the mom and wife and that sort of thing.

- Well I'll tell you one thing that really impressed me when I came back to Britain, the mayor was a woman and the president of the Chamber of Commerce or chairman, whatever she is, was a lady at that time.

And I thought this is the kind of place to come back to.

And I really don't think at the time that I left Britain this would've been the case.

So I feel like that's a certain degree of progress - Over the last 50 years.

There's been a great deal of progress.

Young people have more educational opportunities than ever before.

New and improved roads and highways make for speedier getaways out of town.

But probably the biggest progressive influence on small towns like Britain has been the media.

- We, we went to our days when when radio came in people stayed home, listened to the radio and that was their entertainment.

And it was cheaper than going to a movie of course.

And we come out of that in good shape.

Everything was fine.

- Well the first television was, was very poor.

We had to get reception from Fargo, which is quite a pull or Sioux Falls.

So it took a while before it got so that television was, was real good, but it, it was a very promising business.

Then we sold lots of TVs and I didn't realize at that time that I would be climbing roofs and putting up the antennas on top of houses.

But I've probably been up on, oh, 75% of all the houses in this town putting up antennas.

- TV hit of course down it went again.

But it was on its way back until this BRC deal came in and you would put a reel on your TV set and invite all the neighbors in and have a party and, and that's what hit hard.

- Well the cable system covers, I think we have 600, a little over 600 houses that we supply water to.

That's what I'm going by.

And I, and cable television has over five, 540 I think of those homes.

So I think that it covers almost all the, almost all the town.

- Well the Strand is viable, it's open and we have weekend movies and basically we operate from show to show a town of 1400.

We don't get that many people on some weekends.

And hopefully we have one good movie a month that keeps us going and enable us, us to repair, do repairs in the building and and upkeep and maintenance like that.

- Everybody loves Saturday night.

Everybody, everybody, everybody loves Saturday night.

Everybody, everybody, everybody.

The two Wando, everybody loves Saturday night.

- Well the Old Britain of course was larger and a lot more population and Saturday nights the streets would be full of people just solid and they'd stay open until 12 1 2 o'clock at night.

The stores would, before they close and now of course they close earlier.

- A lot of the old older people like my parents age and stuff and they don't usually come to town like they did in the films, like on week nights they all gather on Main Street.

They don't do that now.

So - What, what do people do now on Saturday night do you think?

- I, I don't know.

They watch TV or go at the lake or something I guess, you know, summertime.

But even in the wintertime there used to be quite a lot of people in town on Saturday night.

- And I don't know, I, I've always thought that the theater, like out here in the sticks is actually the center of the community.

I don't think television will ever take the place of the big screen.

I maybe I'm too much of a theater man and just dream that.

But I think in the long run I'll still go back to the movies.

- How much TV do you think you watch All the time?

A day?

Quite a bit.

I don't know, three or four hours.

So how many TVs do you guys own?

Let's see.

Or how often do you go to town?

- I try to get there at least once every weekend, you know, just to hang out with my friends and just to be with them.

'cause I'm usually not in every day and during the summer I'm hardly in during the summer at all.

But when I do, I like to hang out with my friends and you know, just see what's happened in town during the week and see what they've been doing.

- I think TV has a large influence on people and that's why they stay out of the town area because they, there's nothing to really do on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday nights, there's a lot of activity out here.

- This thing, what he said about tv that's true too because it's not, they don't have to probably pay as much to see a movie and they like to watch TV and just stay home.

And - How much do you think television and movies have influenced the way you dress and the way you talk and and that sort of thing?

- Definitely the way you dress.

Like fashion magazines and television.

No one's gonna dress different than they do 'cause everybody's gonna wanna be in.

And so, but as far as the way you talk, I don't know if that's made that much difference.

- Well this like a, like a movie, like Pretty Woman.

I mean someone sees that and then they just want to be like that person or I mean it could be any other movie but, - But she was a prostitute.

I mean why, why would you wanna be like - Her?

She's so, oh but she turns out to be so nice in the end of course and beautiful and all that and the hair and the thin body and the clothes and you know, everything like that.

That just, that influences a lot I would say.

I mean just different shows, different fads that people wear and stuff like - That.

Nobody really knows where I was a prostitute and they just know as what is what she is just be, I mean she played that part.

Yeah.

But they look at more of how she was change, how she changed at the end of the show and the dresses she wore and her hairstyles woman - Walking down the street.

Woman, woman.

- Another thing I notice then more than I see now, of course styles have changed, I realize that.

But you see women with their hair fixed, just like they come out of a beauty parlor and most of them were sure didn't they fixed it themselves or a neighbor come in and help.

But almost all the ladies you see that are uncovered, they got out of the street, hair's all fixed up now they don't seem to care.

Hair goes every direction or they have so many different styles.

- It's - Changed.

It's just, well it's just so weird because I know that they probably spent just as much time on their hair as we do now.

It was just like, well it's not ugly, you know, but just, just the way they did things.

I mean, who would leave a curl in their hair like that or whatever it was.

- What more do you want in terms of entertainment?

- This is hard when you ask it.

I, I don't know.

I guess shopping malls like Asha said, and I don't know because I guess in small town, like here in Britain it's, you know, there's not a lot to do and I mean you have to like, it's either this or this, but in, it seems like in larger towns, I mean there's so many places you could go.

It'd be like, you know, it'd be to, it wouldn't be that hard to make a decision because I mean, or it would be harder to make a decision because there's so much more to do I guess.

I don't know.

- I left it tric up to them, you know, the time that I was married and made my life it, I wanted to live in Britain.

But they don't, they don't choose to do that.

But that's fine.

- There's so much new in the world where, yeah, not in Britain, things aren't new in Britain as when in the thirties new things are coming to Britain and things are staying the same in Britain right now.

So people are leaving to find the new things.

- Times have really changed and like just the way like people grow up is totally different from what they did before and they probably think that it's not as good or it, I don't know, just that we are growing up in a total different way that people used to.

- That's all they knew in the thirties and that's all they ever thought about.

But now with TV and movies and just communication lines, they know what else there is to see do.

So they wanna move on.

- Do you think it's good or bad or, well I don't, I don't know what it was like back then.

So a lot of people think it's bad, but for us it's okay.

- And I think now we miss a lot.

I know our young people do an awful lothan and I were talking about storytelling and how you don't tell stories to kids anymore, things of the past or anything like that.

And the kids haven't got time to listen anyway.

We're busy watching TV or running to school and a million things.

We're just getting, I think we're gonna run ourselves to death.

I really do.

- So - What except me, I'm, I'm a slow book.

I don't think I will.

- So what's the future for Britain do you think?

- Well, time will tell.

I guess Britain's a county seat that helps.

And so there's a certain amount of of county employees that are still used in town.

But it's, it's harder than it used to be because the roads are so good now that it used to be quite a trip to go to Aberdeen now they run to Aberdeen.

Like it was nothing to it.

- I don't see us growing at any great extent, but I don't think we're gonna get any smaller either.

And I feel that it's very important that because we are the county seat, that's an advantage Britain has.

- If Britain wasn't the county seat and the school is there, well now Horton's is north of town there, it would die out.

Bri Britain will disappear eventually.

- It's kind of a pretty place and people have been real nice.

It, my impression of it comes totally from the films and that's, I have to confess that it's a bit strange because in a certain way when you compare the Britain of today to the Britain of the thirties, there were more people around the center was more active.

People would come to town to trade and to shop and to take in a show.

- We've all got to pull together and work hard because a small town in this complicated technical day and age can't just sit.

- They're kind of disintegrating slowly.

Pretty soon they'll probably be all just big cities and like Britain might, you know, like that'll probably be here yet.

But most of the big cities will be keep growing and growing and most of the smaller towns will keep, you know, disintegrating people moving away and moving to the big city.

I think - There's nine farmstead in this township, which is six by six, six miles per six miles.

So there are there very, very few.

And I'll, well I don't wanna make any predictions, I guess.

- And what is your prediction - That there'll be 10 years from now?

There'll be less than nine in Hamilton ownership there might be three or four.

It it's going to be less yet.

- Well I foresee a future here as long as people want this kinda lifestyle.

If people don't want this kinda lifestyle, then they aren't going to stay here and the town will not be, as we know today, it's - Worth keeping a small town alive.

Sure.

I think that it's a necessity.

You gotta have people in small town.

Lots of people are, are moving back to Britain.

They keep buying a house here and there.

Come from California, from the east coast, west coast and buy homes to retire here.

And it's a good place to retire and and enjoy yourself and nice quiet life, that's for sure.

- Oh, they'll always be Britain.

They'll always be the real small town.

It won't, hopefully it will stay.

I'll be here, I'll be here working.

So - How long do you think your family will farm here?

- Probably till my little brother grows old, I guess.

I don't know.

Hopefully that, but technology is changing and times are changing, so I think more people will be moving to the cities probably.

- Do you wanna move to the city?

- As of right now, no.

I don't think I could live in a big city.

- Why not?

- I like to be outside in the, in the air and I like to be outside doing something that, you know, in a big with no people around.

If you're in a city, you're like, you got a house, they're 20 feet from you and not much privacy and not much freedom.

I, that's what I think anyway.

- The pace I believe was slower in those days and I think people worked closer together than they do now.

Perhaps it's a changing in times.

Maybe it's the speed in which we live, but a little town like ours, you had to work together to hold a town together.

- Keeping small towns together by working together is not a new concept.

People of Britain knew that 50 years ago they worked together to survive the great depression.

Maybe life was simpler than small towns are no longer immune from big city problems.

Crime, healthcare, pollution, joblessness, and our world is now linked through the media.

Perhaps we are speedier.

Perhaps family farms will continue to disappear.

Perhaps young people will always look for greener pastures.

Perhaps the coming changes in information technology will reshape the way small towns work.

One fact remains, the Britain films will continue to be a testament to those simpler times.

And hopefully that old concept of working together to keep the town together will once again be heard all over these United States as a challenge to solve our problems.

So small hometowns like Britain can survive and thrive and remain a hometown forever until the 21st century.