Part 1 of 5

A family farm philosophy

John Denver wrote and sang, “Life on the farm is kinda laid back.”

Growing up on a farm, I wondered what the heck he was talking about. In the 1970s, when the song was popular, being laid back meant taking it easy, being carefree, simple, and uncomplicated. My childhood experience of life on a farm was not laid back. It takes hard, hard work that seems to never end at times A farmer has to plan and anticipate, but he has to rely on nature and weather to have a successful year. The risk and hard work are not conducive to a laid-back life. As a child, I wanted off the farm. As an adult looking back, I wouldn’t have wanted any other childhood.

My dad loved the fact that a farmer is his own boss. No one told him what to do, ever, not even Mom. There were no workplace politics, no sucking up to the boss, or having to deal with difficult coworkers. A farmer had to answer to God, his bank loan officer, and to the IRS, but that’s about it. I’m not counting all the agriculture supply and equipment people and the vet who used to know the farmers, their families, and of course their animals.

Farmers don’t have to fight traffic to get to work. Every day is casual Friday. There is an in-house cafeteria (we called it the kitchen). Daycare is also in-house. My siblings and I could count on someone being there when we got home from school. When we were very little, Mom and Dad took us with them to the field. My little sister and I spent many hours on a blanket in the shade of a tree while Mom and Dad were working. We weren’t perfect children, we got bored and cranky. We had to learn to amuse ourselves, before cell phones, the internet, and video games.

Farmers have a community bond that is rather unique. It isn’t formed on a racial, religious or cultural basis. It’s more proximity and comes from shared work and shared anxiety. When it is time to harvest a crop, it is time for everyone’s harvest in the area. Back when my parents farmed getting big jobs done successfully was often a joint achievement between neighbors and neighborhoods. Picking corn, chopping silage, putting up hay, cutting and getting tobacco in the barn, and stripping tobacco were the jobs that sometimes were joint family operations. My parents knew all the neighbors, their families, what crops and cattle they raised, what equipment they had that could be borrowed, who had kids who wanted extra work for cash, and who was sick and needed a hand.

Our farm was surrounded by other farms, not a sidewalk to be seen for miles. My parents’ friends were farmers, and most of the members of their church were farmers. As a child, I thought that this was the way that most people lived. The images on television of cities with high-rise buildings made all of steel and concrete looked like another world. I had never been in an apartment, and I didn’t know anyone who did. I couldn’t imagine living in one with other walls for your view and having to walk or travel to see grass and a tree. After living in a city, I still can’t imagine living so apart from nature my entire life.

Mom and Dad were once directors of the Farm Bureau co-op, and also directors of the electric co-op that provided the county with power. They were members of the Southern States farm supply co-op that sold fuel, seed, fertilizer, and feed to farmers at a better price than regular retail. It was a sort of the forerunner for Costco, the bulk products were cattle feed instead or organic granola. My parents participated and did their part to help keep the farming industry strong.

The family farming population at that time still had the numbers, visibility, and buying power to have an influence on our community. Banks were open to loaning start-up money for farms or for their improvement. Local merchants planned sales and special events around the seasonal work and even more seasonal income of the family farm. We had an annual Tobacco Festival that was timed after the tobacco crop was out of the fields and in the barns when farmers had time to appreciate it. Older children could be excused from school for a few days if they were needed at home during harvest season. The Future Farmers group was thriving at the county high school and the 4H program had farm children meeting all over the county to work on agricultural projects. One of the highlights of the county fair was the “pulls”. There were tractor pulls and the horse team pulls. The teams of horses pulled weighted sleds just like the tractors did in the tractor pulls.

It was a different time and a different way of life. Time passes and life has changed.

Quick Note: My stories about the history of our farm and how Mom and Dad lived and worked are not part of the set of stories we told over and over at the kitchen table. I wrote these as a method of preservation for me, my siblings, my three nephews, great nieces and great nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews. My nephews are grown now with children of their own. The older nephews helped their parents with farm work when they were young. They have stories to tell their children, but they don’t have time to write them down. Hopefully these stories about their Grandma and Grandpa with prompt them to do some storytelling when their own children and grandchildren get together.