a little story

I was 14 years old when we went down to Fort Benning, Ga to see my brother graduate from basic traing (8 years ago). After the formal graduation ceremony, we were walking back to the parking lot when my brother's girlfriend (now his wife) started giving me grief because I wanted to farm. Well, Amanda is far from being from the county let alone a farm and has no clue what all is involved in farming. So we're walking along the street and she's calling me "farmer bob" and crazy hick and so on and so forth, I got tired of this abuse and told her how if it weren't for farmers she wouldn't have the food she eats or the clothes she was wearing. I then told her she should have some respect for farmers and all they do for "city slickers" like her (as I was telling her all this I didn't notice the truck that was crawling down the street beside us, or that the guy had his window down and was listening to the conversation). When I got done telling Amanda all this I heard a guys voice say "D*MN RIGHT MAN!" I look over and see the guy driving an older 1ton crewcab dually chevy with his head out the window pointing his finger towards us with a big ole smile on his face. I smiled and looked back at Amanda who had turned bright red from embrassment. Believe it or not, she didn't say another word about my dream to farm the rest of the trip. Every now and then she'll start to give me grief about the whole farming thing and all I have to do is mention Fort Benning and she blushes and shuts up.

A female teacher was giving one of her students the same treatment that you were getting. It happenned that this teacher was married to the town maintainence man. When she asked this kid just what he planned to do if he couldn"t make if farming, he replied that he could always get a job cleaning streets and gutters like her husband!

He grew up to be one of the most successful farmers in the area.

Myself I work in an office during the day after going to 5 years of university, but my heart is in being outside. Not always farming so much but outdoor things. Logging, haying, doing foundations or framing houses, you name it. I also like turning my own wrenches. Its a shame a man who works hard outside all day in all sorts of weather can't always earn what the guy sitting in the office makes.