Monday, November 23

It was about mid-morning when I heard the rumble of large equipment in the field next to us – looked outside and grabbed my camera.

I took all these pictures from our front door, the patio, or one of our windows.

From beginning to end, it took two hours.

I love living in the country – on the land where my grandfather, father, and siblings and I grew up.

I walked this road to school (it was a dirt road back then) – first to a one-room schoolhouse (now a family dwelling next door to us) – then beyond it to get the bus when the schools consolidated.

I was in 4th grade when I rode my first school bus.

This field has seen a variety of crops during my almost 72 years: alfalfa, corn, tomatoes, and I think I remember when it was surrounded by fence and used for grazing for the dairy herd my dad raised.

My brothers may remember other crops.

There’s a funny story about a time Grandpa was husking corn in this field – a bit closer to the farm. He knew when the mailman would go by, so stored some already-husked-corn nearby and pretended to be husking and throwing corn very fast when the mailman went by. Soon the neighbors heard about how quickly Milt Hershey husked corn. 🙂

Another funny thing happened in this field – I think the summer after my step-mother married my Dad. She wanted to be helpful so drove the pickup truck or a tractor (I forget which) to this field to help Daddy pick up corn that had been missed by the corn-picker.

When she got here, Daddy asked her if she knew she was pulling the elevator behind her. She did not. 🙂 We still love to tease her about that now and then. It makes us smile because it was a neat demonstration of her love for our dad.

Another time a man ran through this field when trying to get away from the law.

I sure do treasure this land where the corn grew and matured this summer.