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September 2009
The Joys of Being a Farm Kid
Dear Friends,
The other day, the kids and I were playing Hide and Seek among the 4th cutting alfalfa bales strung across our field near home. The only problem with our game was that 4th cutting bales are scattered a little farther apart in the field than first cutting, when there is more hay in the first place. So to hide, we had to run pretty fast to duck behind a bale before we were discovered.
The second problem we encountered was when three-year-old Zachary, who was hidden safely behind a bale with me, kept jumping out from behind our perfect hiding spot and yelling out, "Guys, we're over here!" That kind of defeated the purpose.
After our game, we all enjoyed a great pickup ride back to the house. It was a perfect Sunday adventure in the fields for all of us. It was the kind of thing only farm kids could enjoy, whenever they wanted to.
My daughters like to tell me about all of the fun things "town kids" enjoy doing every day. Sometimes they even say that "town kids" have lots more fun than "farm kids." They can go swimming whenever they like. They can go to the cafe up town, or the convenience store, or the park, whenever they want to. There are more people around and more excitement to enjoy in town, my children like to say.
I guess growing up, I never thought about what it might have been like to be a "town kid." I just enjoyed being me. I enjoyed feeding baby calves in the barn. I liked jumping on the straw bales in our hayloft. I didn't even mind walking soybean fields all that much.
I truly enjoyed mowing the lawn on the riding tractor and driving a real tractor through the fields. I also liked riding in the pickup to check cows in the pasture. It was all an adventure. Every day was something new and different.
My kids have known a few farm adventures too. We have taken farm hikes to the top of our highest hills on the farm. We've walked along old Bow Creek and dug fossils from its banks. We've caught monarch butterflies in the grove, checked bluebird boxes along the driveway and picked mulberries until our fingers were purple.
In my mind, farm kids and small town kids today are blessed. We can still trust our neighbors. We still have relative safety for our children. We can enjoy the joys of small town and farm life, going to ball games, participating in 4-H, caring for livestock, taking walks whenever we want.
I try to pass this great appreciation for our lives on to my children. I'm sure they see kids with all the technological advances that we don't have at home. I imagine they'd like to go swimming every day. I'm sure there are things "town kids" enjoy, that my children are deprived of.
But for me, the blessings of a nice game of Hide and Seek behind the hay bales is a lot of fun. We enjoy those impromptu softball games in the farmyard or in the pasture. We like to roast marshmallows in the firepit out by our grove, or go for a pickup ride out to our pasture. And the sky is something my children will always have.
Even in a small town, street lights sometimes drown out the night sky. These past few weeks, the night sky has been spectacular. The other night, as I was walking home from the hayfield, I looked up into a massive dark canopy, sprinkled with twinkly stars everywhere.
Whenever we have relatives from the city visit us overnight, the night sky is something they always marvel at most. Seeing a night sky full of stars on the farm is like seeing the starry night for the very first time. It is awesome. The sights, the sounds, and even the odors of a farm, day or night, are something to be appreciated. But I have to admit that I may not have appreciated it as much as I should have until I spent four years of college in Lincoln. It was only after living in the city for a time that I was able to look up at the stars at night with a new perspective. It was only then that I truly appreciated chores, feeding livestock, pasture walks, and the unique odor of hog manure. I hope my children are blessed with that same appreciation some day soon.
Hope you have a great week.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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