My little farm

Marilyn is on a roll and adds her second contribution.

As a youngster growing up on the farm 22 miles from any “civilization,” I could hardly wait to leave that all behind me. I had dreams of being a city girl, of living a pampered life, quite opposite of the life I’d been raised in on the farm.

For some reason, those childhood and childish dreams never did come true. And for some reason, I never met a “city guy” whom I could relate to! Believe me; I tried! I made it a rule never to date any farm kids! Nope, I made sure the guys I dated were sophisticated, and knew nothing about hard work and farm life!

Ha! How silly that was! Sophisticated? Hardly! Hard work? Most of them had no clue what hard work meant!

I’d come home from working long, hard hours as a nurse’s aide, only to find my boyfriend still asleep, lounging around the house at 2:30 in the afternoon! He gave the excuse for not showing up for work that day, as “I just didn’t feel like it.” For some reason, that didn’t sit well with me! I found it to be quite disgusting, in fact, and the relationship would soon end. I would end up kicking these deadbeat men out of my home!

Yet I still searched for that dream I had as a child. Did I miss the farm? Oh, some. But my family lived close enough to town that on weekends I still visited them on the farm. But my heart still told me to stay away from dating farm boys.

As I matured, both in wisdom and in years, I discovered what made me so disgusted by boyfriends who had a poor work ethic. Why wouldn’t laziness disgust me? I was raised on a farm by parents who taught me to rise early and work hard all day! I was taught that nothing gets done by sitting around lazily watching the day go past. I was taught that at the end of the day, it was time to rest and play. But not before the work was done!

As I near my 50th year, there are days I long for those long-lost farm days. My heart aches for those times, for those memories to be relived once again! Just because my parents taught me to work long and hard, they also showed me how to enjoy the simple pleasures in life and to sit back and relax.

I have loved working hard forever. Well, at least ever since I was an adult, having to go out and make my own living in this world! I look back on my life as a young adult, setting out on my own in the big old world. Even as young as I was, as immature as I was then, I knew that I must show up for work unless I was truly sick. I knew that even though I may have stayed out too late with my friends partying up a storm, that when the alarm went off, it was time to drag myself out of bed and get to work. I never was one to call in sick for any reason other than if I was truly sick.

That sticks with me even to this day. As I grow ever closer to being half a century old/young, I find myself imitating my parents’ lifestyle. I am up before the alarm goes off, starting my day. In the summer months, there is always something in the garden or yard that needs attention. I like to be out there just as the sun rises, tending to my little piece of farm life, right here in town. Right here in my back yard.

I tell my 80-year-old father that he farmed in the country and I farm in town. He laughs at that and agrees with me! I show him my corn rows, which are skimpy compared to the hundreds of acres he once grew! He and I mow my lawn. I tell him that my farm is puny compared to what he used to farm, but this is the closest thing to a real farm I can get!

Dad agrees with me, smiles, and off we go, each doing our “farm work” as the sun sets lower and lower in the western sky.