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So you want to raise your own crops, do you, want to learn about what its like to farm the land, I can tell you one thing, it is not like they show you in those fancy movies.

Back in the 1930s things were bad, and when the war started up a few years later, times were tough and some of the common things that we used to take for granted were hard to get, like sugar, even milk and creme, but on a farm you could usually get what you wanted by trading what they call today bartering.

If a family had honey, they sometimes would trade for flour or corn meal, trading was a big part of life and you know what, people actually helped each other back then, if someone was sick they went and did for them.

In so many ways farming life, was the only life most kids my age knew, at least in corn country things hardly ever changed.

We learned more in one summer than many people learned in a life time.

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How could a thing of iron and steel become so important to our survival, when your a kid on a farm your protected from the world, at least as much as you can be protected.

In a time where everything was rationed, even sugar, that old tractor, saved us more than once.

Life is full of surprises, so often we never think about the more important things in life until it is far too late, I suspect that may be something our parents want to see happen, in many ways it is a good thing, in other ways when it is time, you are never really prepared.

When you are young you tend to remember the good times in life, your first swim in the blue hole, the first time you did something so right your dad was proud of you, these times are the shinning times in our lives and will never be forgotten, but there are also times that can be just as memorable but perhaps not as lofty or as filled with pleasure.

Heat in the south is a well told joke, but it is also a serious problem, if your not prepared, because the heat will burn you up.

Hotter than the fourth of July, man that year it was hot, in fact we had a lot of jokes about the heat.

you can eat hot pepper to cool your mouth off.

A seat best makes a fairly good branding iron.

Cows give evaporated milk.

Now that is hot, but I can tell you that summer it was hot, I mean it was really hot, you had to drink lots of water, or you would end up passed out and that was not a fun thing to do, trust me on that, after spending one hot friday afternoon in a tub of water felling like I was about to die, after that I always had plenty of water with me.

On the Farm you Eat what you grow, often that meant, Some of the best Breakfast you can imagine.

Fresh Baked Biscuits, Eggs, Grits, Bacon, Sausage, and our Favorite, Tomato Gravy, never tried it then you are not
a farm boy, at least in the mid west, or south west, That tangy flavor, on a hot buttered biscuit, you cant beat it.

From Dawn to days end, work was never hard to find.

Country life, farm life, it was all he knew from as early as he could remember his family had been farming.

You may have heard the song a country boy can survive, well it is true, a truer song was never written, these days, you can get robbed in a min, and it does not matter how much or how little you have, because the police are rarely right there when you need them, because there are too few of them.

The Urban areas are not as safe as they used to be, even for those that live there, but just two days until thanksgiving, one year, the phone rang, it was the worst possible news, but at that time I did not yet know it nor would I have believed it.

Growing up on a farm is not like growing up in the city, in fact, as the first member of my family to go to college, I later learned that growing up in the country, might actually help a man survive difficult situations.

There was always something exciting about a tractor, as a kid, you would look at that monster of iron and you were both afraid and in wonder at the same time, I know it might sound strange to someone who has never been on a farm or been a part of something like a farm, but a tractor, to a boy growing up, is like a tool in the hands of a skilled craftsman, learning how to use a tractor is every farm boys dream, at least it was for this one.

It was an 8 N ford tractor manufactured in 1949 and it smoked every time it was started up, but it did its job day after day never complaining it remained a thing of iron and grease.

Everything was there even the attachments, a bush hog, box blade, even a double plow and a bucket too. Every thing you would need to make a road and more.

I remember seeing my dad running that same tractor, cutting grass or spreading gravel, it was something he enjoyed doing working with tools and the power of that old ford tractor.

It was years later, when I saw that old tractor again, and things were not the same as the last time I saw it, a tarp covered, it and it started, smoking as usual, the clutch was worn, and probably needed replacing.

I took stock of the tractor and held the keys in my hand, wondering about so many things that remained unanswered.

There was a sadness about the old thing, a sort of unused dust had settled around the controls, a mild amount of rust was present on the seat and the steering wheel was old and had some cracks in it.

Later I found a new steering wheel, it way just lying, on top of a table in the garage, it was one of the things that he meant to get around to doing but never did, when I saw it I quietly thought to myself that I would fix this tractor and make it whole again and I didnt care what the cost was I would do it.

yes, and why not, it was after all one of the things that makes us uniquely, American, tradition.

Tradition is important to farming families, all over the world, it is something more than just a theory or a thought, it is a will to survive, a need to fulfill promises made, and the best things that we are, we must preserve, so it was more than just a tractor, it was a way of life, that old tractor, was about to be brought back to life.

The story is one that is an ongoing thing it is almost alive, as I tell it, I realize all the things that are really important as life so quickly moves around us, there are some that find a way to see beyond the next work day, they find an escape, from the trap that is an ever revolving merry go round.

The music turns and turns, and where it stops no body knows…

One thing remains, the iron and the fields, they always remain…

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