The City boy and the Country boy

It’s good to get outside of your circle of friends and meet new people.   I think we all need to find out about life’s different perspectives now and then.   The young man we met on our weekend Getaway to the Big City shared some perspectives with us that, frankly…. had us really surprised.  He was thirtyish and  a city boy through and through.   He was intelligent; a paramedic/firefighter working on additional credentials in that field.  He was a great conversationalist and you could tell he was probably the life-of-the-party type of guy.  We enjoyed his company and that of his co-worker friend.  They were celebrating a job promotion for her.

Of course when my husband meets new people, he likes to pick their brains.  He is also very proud of his farming background and what he has achieved over the past 63 years.  So we were both rather taken aback when our new firefighter friend started asking us questions and making comments about farmers.

“Wow!  You live on a farm.  Do you know how lucky you are?  I would love to live in the country and enjoy the fresh air and quiet surroundings.”

{Yes, we do know how lucky we are.  Yes we have fresh air, but we live on a major highway and quiet … it’s not.}

“It must be great to just walk outside and get the food you need each day.  You know where it’s coming from and probably a lot cheaper, too.”

{That’s not exactly how it works.  We raise wheat, corn, and soybeans and I get my food at the grocery store for the most part.}

“But don’t you just go out and pick some corn when you want it and fix it for your meals?”   He was dead serious.

{No the corn and the soybeans we raise are used for corn oil, corn starch, mostly feed for livestock, but it’s not sweet corn like you fix for a summer meal.}

“But my Grandpa told me that the first outside 8 rows of every cornfield is the corn that the farmer uses for food, and the rest of the field is for the farmer to sell.”

{Had no reply for that one}

“So you have your own chickens and eggs and milk and stuff like that, right?”

{No we are not livestock farmers.  We used to raise 5000 head of hogs per year but gave that up. We just raise crops.}

“Wow, how could you possibly name that many hogs!?”

{For some reason I get that question a lot.  The pigs were not pets; we cared for them, fed and watered and kept them clean and healthy, but we didn’t name them.  Seriously it was difficult enough naming our three children)

“Really, well one of my good friends is now a farmer.  He bought a house and about 4 acres and he’s got a cow, some chickens, and some goats.  He’s growing a garden, all organic, and so far he’s really liking it.  “

{Does he also have another job?}

“Oh, yeah.. he works in a foundry in the city to make ends meet but he thinks he can quit that job eventually and just be a farmer.”

{We explained that we had started another business to help support the farm when years were tough and weather was not cooperative.  How I had worked for 35 years outside the home to provide income for the family and health insurance.}

He seemed shocked at that information.   The conversation kind of fell apart at that point and we started to talk about other things.  I don’t think that when we parted company he had a very good understanding of farming.   I think there are a lot of people in the world today that have many misconceptions about farming.  And to be fair, I probably don’t have a very good idea of what living in the city is all about.

We both walked away scratching our heads…

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