Just some thick-lined logo logo action on a Friday. And carrots. Nothing more, nothing less.

So it’s 1975 or 1976 and good Americans are celebrating their Bicentennial, right? A high time. 200 years young. And the family farm is going strong, with tough times on the horizon in those ’80s.

Here’s a little snippet from the back of this memo book to get that agrarian blood pumping:

“Leap ahead into America’s future.

Her Flag still flys (sic) high and proud. There are many more Americans. Typically, they are hard at work enjoying their homes and families. They have plenty of wholesome top-quality food. They remain free.

But what incites them to accept the call of a future America’s demand for food and fiber?

It is in their Creed: “I believe in the future of farming, with a faith born not of words, but of deeds — achievements  of agriculturists…I believe that rural America can and will hold true to the best traditions of our national life…”

And it is their Heritage. Men who molded America came from farms and plantations — farmer statesman of the past like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They understood the challenge of change. They fought for their beliefs. They took risks. Their flaming spirit served as a high standard which generations of Americans have endeavored to emulate.

Future Farmers today are inspired by these same heroes of our Nation and her agriculture. The vigor of their youth drives them onward. FFA members are A FUTURE FOR AMERICA!”

There you go, people. The entire Field Notes enterprise would like to take this opportunity to tip our hat to the American farmer. Thank you.

Man, we’ve been on a real Minnesota kick with our ongoing memo book archive offerings. They just always did it right, way up there in that Upper Midwest.

And today, that’s we’ve got for ya. So many great memo books out of the middle lands.

Man, we love grain elevators. There’s just not much more to say about it than that.

I just drove across the prairie and there’s just something soothing about looking out over the expanses to see these towering castles dotting the landscape. One after another, all the way out west across that Midwest.

From the earth to the tower, to the rail car down on the rail, then to you.

Here’s a great Flickr set that shares the same sentiment called “I Love Grain Elevators.”

Man, that is some wicked type in that little yellow triangle!

“Farwell Ozmun Kirk and Co, St. Paul”

Sure, bit of a mouthful but check out how they got that stuff to “point” at their list of wholesale hardware items?!

All of this, on the cover of a long-forgotten memo book, luckily dug up by little ol’ me somewhere in my loose travels. I can’t remember if I got it out of a widow’s junk drawer or antique shop or maybe even from some shark-toothed “picker” off an online auction service called “eBay.” The exact place and time escapes me, but that ain’t what’s important. It is rescued and spared from the landfill, burn pile or local pulp recycler.

Here it is, for the ages, to think about when you use your Field Notes brand memo books. All these old books we find factor into how we curate Field Notes for you, and for the world, always thinkin’ about the masterful ways of the past.

Man, that is one good lookin’ memo book.

I’ll forever be blown away by the beauty of these little books. Ya just never know what you’re gonna find out there. So much beauty, and so often forgotten.

I can’t quite remember where I found this one, and there’s something a little bit sad about that. What’s important is that I got my dirty mitts on it, and it’s in safe hands now in the Field Notes master archives, for the ages.

Sure, we love old memo books. We like the old type, the aged paper and the ancient handwriting that might populate a page. Ghosts. So many ghosts.

And we also love the somewhat more contemporary examples from the 70s and 80s. Come one, come all. All have a home with Field Notes.

“Trusted Family Seedsmen.” We like the sound of that. Good work if you can get it.

I don’t know what a “meat cross” is, but I do know this, I won’t be messing with the chickens of Hubbard Farms anytime soon. Scary little birds, man. Yikes.

We haven’t seen much demand for 12″ x 3″ notebooks, the Mensheviks must have had interesting pockets.

Here’s a memo book from one of the greatest American shoes retailer from back in the day: Kinney’s Shoe Stores.

The brainchild of George Romanta Kinney, he revolutionized the retail footwear industry by “offering popularly priced shoes to working Americans.” We like the sound of that. This all started out in 1894, in a little town in upstate New York. He grew that first little store into a one hell of a business, and 50 years later, the string of regional stores were crafted into a nationwide chain. Even more success followed, with mergers and new subsidiaries. So little over a century later, with billions in revenues, tons of stores nationwide and all sorts of slick spinoffs like Susie Casuals and Foot Locker under their belt, “Black September” of 1998 fell, and Kinney’s closed their many doors.

So get a load of the memo book we’re featuring today. These were items that were given out to customers in the stores. A way to advertise. Some added value. Functional. Useful.

A good way of going about things, if you ask us.