My friend was called to Jury Duty – the defense attorney interviewed him and each potential jury member.
She ask my friend what he did for a living – he replied proudly “I am a farmer” —
The attorney said “No, No – You did not understand my question, I ask “What do you do for a living – You know, How do you earn money to buy cloths, etc?”
“Oh” my friend replied, “I drive school bus sometimes.”
With so many opportunities available to young folks, why would any one of them choose to be a farmer. Sixty three years ago I left the Brethren Farm community I grew up in and never went back. But now, if I do not look at old photos, my aging mind sees it a little bit more like the Future Farmers of America shows it.
Now days, organizations like the FFA do a lot to glamorize farming as a way to “Make a Living” . I did not grow up in much glamor of farming.
I looked like this:
The Girls on neighboring farms looked like this:
An advertisement for Knee Deep farm clothing sees it like this:
FFA shows it clean cut and smiling like this:
and like this:
The photo above shows more glamor then I saw when growing up! Maybe being a farmer nowadays ain’t so bad.
This week we hauled 400 bales of hay for the horses winter meals. The young folks at the farm loaded the wagons and stacked the bales in the barn after a 30 mile drive (including the ferry boat ride) –
They told me I was too old to keep up with them – I would just be in the way – they said “Just stand by and we will get the job done” – so I stood by and remembered when I told Grandpa to stay out of the way – and thought how great it is to work outdoors with family and learn – you know at 12 to 16 years old we farm boys are given assume responsibility to get the job done, – In this case they planned how to stack bales to stay on the trailer/wagon for the 30 mile drive home, they drove the tractor and place the wagon to make the bale transfer easy, they told each other how to do it right without making their friends mad enough to clobber them, (they worked as a team), they were clean cut and smiling.
Giving instructions (Tractor driver is 13, the boy giving instructions on how close to get the wagons is a 15 year old)
working
working
working
working
working
working
getting another wagon into position
Waiting for the ferry to Drummond
working
Second load ready
This haying trip where I was too old to help – I only got to drive the truck 30 miles from our horse barn to the hay farm, and drive back fully loaded. Sitting watching the work being done by young farm folks gave me a chance to thank the Lord that God made me a real farm boy from a Church of the Brethren farming community! Few get to have such a wonderful upbringing, then go off and do other jobs that allowed them to make a living, and then return to sit and watch a new generation of themselves still being me as I was 60 years ago – WOW.
I hope the city “Wannabe”s do get to have a little taste of it too – in their own way of course – You know who I mean – The rich New York kids that want to look poor like a farm girl – and walk the streets of The East Village where everything is pretend – I read that part about pretend this morning while researching what The East Village is – Gloria told me she was there for dinner and a show yesterday – Go ahead look it up – it is a fun read. I often heard of the “Village People” but never knew what it was.
Oh, I went to Neiman Marcus to see about Farm Jeans for the East Village Wannabe’s – for around $600 poor dollars you can get a pair like these:
Rear view
Front view
Bet that would bring the young farm boys to the streets of The East Village and help them forget about riding the tractor back in Michigan.
That is my thoughts for now – you decide if any of my thoughts make sense
Oh – See my photo club’s photos of Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker and the coast of Maine – click a photo below
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