1) Work hard and work long until the job is done. And do it right!
I literally grew up a farmer's daughter. On a regular basis we had dairy cattle, stock cattle, pigs and chickens. At various times I recall having a couple of horses and a goat. Over the span of 60 plus years, Daddy grew and harvested crops of cotton, peanuts, grain, hay, soybeans, sugar cane, field corn….just to name a few. Farmers hours are sun-up to sun-down. And sometimes a farmer is called upon in the darkest of hours should a Mama cow come into distress while trying to give birth.
2) It's best not to buy anything 'on time' (Daddy's word for 'credit').
Daddy bought very little 'on time'. And if he did, he paid it off as quickly as possible. I'll never forget the first time I realized Daddy paid cash for a 'pick-up' truck. I was shocked. Even though, at that time, it cost all of about $2,500 to buy a new Ford F100 'pick-up' truck, $2,500 was, and still is, a lot of money.
3) Take care of what you have and make it last - whether new or old.
I do believe Daddy's favorite piece of equipment was a grease gun. If a piece of farm equipment had a 'grease nozzle', you can rest assured Daddy pumped grease into that nozzle until it seeped out through the joints. Daddy bought grease by the 5 gallon bucket - he was serious about keeping his equipment well greased and in good working order.
The scariest moment I had with my Daddy:
I was about 12-13 years old and my Mama had to leave for a few days, leaving me and Daddy on our own. It was during the summer months and I was not in school. On this particular day, Daddy was in the hayfield bailing hay and I was at home. Daddy only came in from the field if something broke or if it was time to eat. Daddy drove up about mid-morning which lead me to believe - something broke. He walked in the back door of the house into the kitchen and to this day I still have this very clear & vivid picture in my mind of Daddy standing in the kitchen and all he had on was a shirt, ONLY the bib of his overalls and his boxer shorts. He had somewhat of an amused look on his face, but by the time he finished telling me what happened, there was no amusement on my face - only fear and the realization that Daddy could have easily been killed that day.
Let me set the stage - Daddy was bailing hay and was by himself in the field. The hay bailer gathered the hay from the ground, pushed it into the bailer, compacted it, wrapped a piece of twine around the bail (a bail was about 4 feet long and 2 feet high) and then 'shot it' out the back of the bailer onto the ground. The hay bailer was pulled and powered by Daddy's John Deere Tractor. The tractor had a 'power take off' (PTO) which is a drive shaft at the the back of the tractor that attaches to equipment so that the equipment can pull it's power to run from the tractor. Imagine a cylinder about 1 1/2 feet long, 4-5 inches in diameter, and when engaged spins so fast it looks like it's not moving. For obvious safety reasons, the PTO is supposed to have a shield over it.
What happened: Yes, Daddy took care of his equipment and he made it last…..but sometimes that meant improvising. First, the hay bailer periodically would 'skip' a bail - meaning the twine would loosen up and fail to tie off the bail properly. Second, remember I said the PTO on a tractor is supposed to have a shield over it - well there was no shield on the PTO on Daddy's tractor. SOOOO, because the the hay bailer 'skipped' bails periodically, as Daddy drove the tractor down the hay row he sat half-cocked on the seat of the tractor with one eye on the hay bailer. Daddy could tell when the twine was loosening and as soon as he could spot it loosening he would throw the tractor out of gear, jump off the back of the tractor, tighten the twine, climb back on the tractor and proceed on. One of those particular times he jumped off the back of the tractor, the bottom of his pants leg of his overalls got caught in the PTO and immediately started winding his overalls around and around the shaft that was spinning multiple turns per second. Daddy couldn't reach the lever to disengage the PTO. What saved him? The fact that he had on a very OLD pair of overalls and eventually the PTO literally ripped his overalls off of him from the bottom of the bib down. But not before his leg and hip had been pulled up against the PTO causing severe burns, abrasions and bruising, but miraculously nothing broken.
Memorable moments with my Daddy:
There are several but a couple that stand to the fore front are:
*Seeing my Daddy sitting with my 2 year old daughter at her child sized picnic table, which she had set complete with her plates and cups ready to serve her Papaw a meal, and MY Daddy had on Mickey Mouse ears.
*The first and only time my Daddy said the words "I love you" to me. He was in a hospital bed after having a heart attack - I was 25 years old.
--------
Daddy has been gone from this world 18 years. He left behind a legacy of integrity and a strong work ethic instilled in many. Yet, behind that farmer's integrity, strong work ethic, and farmer's 'tan', was a man who loved his family. And Daddy, your family loved you! Happy 'Daddy's' Day!!
No comments:
Post a Comment