Farmeding

My family came to visit. From Illinois. My mother. My sister. Her husband and daughter. They are the reason I am here. On the East coast. He came to write (he is a writer of sports, particularly baseball, and covered the Mets for the Star-Ledger) and I came to leave the Midwest, particularly agriculture, behind. I attended a small, rural high school where the ratio of Future Farmers of America (FFA)to "college-bound" students (CBS, no just kidding!)was probably, no actually 72-4. Yes, I was one of four and we had 76 kids in our graduating class of '76. After graduating college early, I worked for Pizza Hut for one month, saved $300, packed my Volkswagen station wagon (I never craved cool cars) and headed east. I slept on my sister's couch in her NJ garden apartment for three weeks until I found a job and a place to live in Morristown, NJ in an old house on Western Avenue with three roommates. Even though it was during a "recession" it was still easier then to find a job. I worked for Western Union International selling Telex (does anyone even remember what that is?) service, a dying business, to multi-nationals. The telex business was quickly getting replaced by the revolutionary "fax" machine. We would gasp in awe of the "power of the fax machine" which could send an entire page of information to Switzerland in just a minute or so compared to the slow .... of the telex. I worked that job for a little over a year, saved a bunch of money and quit. I moved into Manhattan and spent four glorious months doing nothing (workwise) and everything (NYC-wise) -- museums, art galleries, off-off Broadway, Panchitos, Staten Island ferries, double features in air-conditioned theaters seeing James, Jimmy and Judy (Dean, Cliff and Davis). And reading Henry Miller and Dostoyevsky. Those were heady times for me. And if you told me that I would be growing vegetables in black dirt, I would have laughed and said "There is no way. I'll never do that!" I haven't learned much in life. But I have learned to never say never. Because that is exactly what I will do. And I have also learned that it's best to not pay too much heed to my children. At least on the superficial conversational level. It's not what you say, it's what you do. Whatever you want your kids to be, however you want them to "turn out" do that. Whatever "that" is. For what you do, they will become. And so, I am, farming (some people call it gardening but it's more than that, not really "farming" but farmeding or garming? we need some new language about this whole thing) like my mother and father did. Only it's different. Because it's all different now. In some ways, it's easier (there's more community support) and in some ways, it's more difficult (you can't just sit back, be conservative and let your boat float). You've got to get both feet firmly planted on that surfboard and ride the rushing wave. And hold on tight. (But not too tight). And enjoy (which I need to do more of). Enjoy!