Oh, by the way, Happy Thanksgiving! Perhaps more so, on this day than others, I am thankful for the life I have enjoyed since retirement, almost six years ago. I need to go back a bite, almost 45 years back.
I had thought the absolute most wonderful life for my family was on the 160 acre farm where Carrie had been brought to before her first birthday, and where new born Kevin was brought to from the hospital. Wide open spaces with every type of farm animal imaginable that needed tending. Orlin was all about making use of everything the garden could produce. Carrie and Kevin helped stomp the sauerkraut and turning the wheel on the apple press for great apple juice to be canned. I had a tricked out sewing room in the basement, complete with a rug loom off to one side. We liked the idea of being self sustaining as much as possible.
Farming does not allow for fast rewards. It’s all about timing and planning to stretch the resources that the land and animals produce. There was no measure for dollars earned in relationship to hours invested. I did take on our township’s real estate assessment to earn $200 a year for the seasonal work. The first year I purchased a clothes dryer. Fantastic, no more hanging clothes outside to freeze dry. The second year I purchased a Sears electric sewing machine. Let’s hear it for the Model 1820, as I am still using it, albeit it is on its third motor. My family was just a few sections away in various directions, so there was no shortage of extra man power to trade off when needed.
One day, when Orlin came home and said he had passed the entrance interview for 3M in Hutchinson, it totally caught me off guard. In 1970, our world began to rotate on a different axle. 3M meant rotating shifts. Rotating shifts meant I would be doing the dairy milking and animal chores alone, once a day of the two time slots. In time, the dairy herd went by the way side. We farrowed pigs and took care of a flock of chickens. In 1973 our 160-acre farm was divided. Three different owners now enjoyed what had been the wonderful life I had envisioned for my family for years to come. There was no way that moving to an acre site could compare to the wide open spaces of the farm life. It is amazing what one can adapt to.
My Dad was a townboard official and he brought news that there were two more townships that were looking for an assessor during seasonal work. Times had changed and now there was a license needed to continue the work. Who else, but a Dad, would offer to attend multiple days and multiple locations of classes for me to achieve a license for what he saw as writing on the wall. I achieved the license and as we moved to three more additional locations, I found work using the license issued by the State of Minnesota.
Fast forward to 2009. I was able to hang up the tape measure and put the multiple math equations to rest. As it were, I had stayed at that third location that we had moved to. Orlin went on to seek what was on the end of his rainbow. The license that I had obtained to add dollars to a family budget sustained me through my entire working career.
The interruption to that quiet life that I loved on the f’arm, I have found right here on Stauffer Avenue. I know in my heart there are choices that I make in today’s world that are more reminiscent of the times on that wonderful farm. No big bells or whistles for me. I like making do with what is at hand. I don’t find myself needing to update the home that Dennis and I have made together. My earlier years; Dennis’ earlier years, this is our fantastic home.
Not too long ago, I spent time with Doreen and Judy and all three of us have or have had the same career. We have known each other long enough that both knew and had worked with Orlin when he was in the assessing field. We have shared a lot of life as it has effected each one of us. We each rambled about family, homes and life in general. I expressed the feeling that the life I had known had been interrupted by a need to earn a livelihood, via the State of Minnesota. My dream had been to be a farmer’s wife to the end. Doreen piped up and shared that her dream had been to get the heck off the farm and find someone with a job who was no way related to farming.
Life on Stauffer: pretty darn sweet.
The welcome mat is always out for those that choose to drop by. Recently we visited someone who had just purchased a newer, larger home for themselves. In reflecting on it: it’s a five bedroom home, their living room seats four in comfort and their dining area also seats four. Anyone who has visited our home knows that the furniture is pushed to the side and we can have six to eight people enjoy a meal with us. After the meal, the dishes are done, and the sit-down comfortable chairs are put back in place for conversation. Our home is small, our hearts are huge. No one goes home wanting. I have said it often: life on Stauffer is wonderful.
In life, please remember to give and have no memory of it, or take and remember it always.
