55 Years And Counting From The Tractor Seat

By bill whitman 

 Over the years, the last 60 or so that I remember, times have changed. When I was a kid, my brother and I stayed busy playing baseball, football and basketball. The older we got, we had activities, in school, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and church. When I was about 9, I was expected to do what I could to help with farming. John Deere B’s were still aplenty and our farm had a couple. The first field work I did was raking hay. The expectation as I grew older was to work at whatever and whenever needed. When my feet could reach the clutch, I did all kinds of fieldwork, and to this day I remember enjoying every minute of it. 

I spent countless hours sitting on the fender of a tractor while we plowed, disked, planted… you name it. Words weren’t always shared but the bonding that took place lasted a lifetime. Add to that, our late fall and winter were full of repairing and updating our equipment. That’s where I learned what a wrench was and how to think for myself. How many plow shares I changed, and learned to wear gloves because the heads of the bolts were sharp. Replacing knife blades on a sickle bar mower, I learned to make sure the pulley was on the bottom so it couldn’t rotate down and cut a finger. 

If we mention these practices today, I can hear the gasps of horror at the risks. But as I think back, I was always overseen by an adult. Whether family members, neighbors, or teachers, we were being supervised and taught multiple lessons. These lessons have lasted a lifetime. This is also the environment that is missing from so many of our young people’s lives’ today. I can’t remember how many young people have come to our farm over the past 20 years and though they were teens or older, they didn’t know what a crescent wrench was, wrench sizes, or how to use nearly any tool. I keep wondering what they’re being taught in school. 

The point of this article is that we need to introduce our children to what we do for a living as early in their lives as possible. I don’t think we can depend on our schools to teach the reasoning skills we utilize every day, I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be the schools’ responsibility. Perhaps it’s one of the many jobs societies has given schools that belong to we parents. 

So how do we tear our kids away from their “screens’” and join us on the farm. I suggest we don’t give them a choice. Most modern equipment have a “buddy” seat in them and are quiet enough to talk. I’ve said several times that in order to help our kids grow, especially teens, we need to be prepared to listen to 55 minutes that may not mean much to hear 5 minutes from them that we really need to hear. It’s how we learn what’s going on in their lives and teach them to come to us for advice instead of less appropriate sources. 

Having our kids learn to trust us is how we can instill in them a love for the soil, a love for the livestock we raise and the equipment we use in our lives. 4 H and FFA do a good job of building on this love if we can just get the kids interested in us, their parents. We can instill in them a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction as they overcome problems by reasoning and encouragement. Without a doubt, “screens” are a powerful draw; a parent’s love is stronger. 

IndianaAg@bluemarble.net