When Dad spent hours building a classic barn for a Christmas
gift, we kids were lucky in several ways. First of all, he is not a carpenter
by nature. Baling wire and masking tape are his fix-it preferences, but he held
a productive family farm together for decades, so maybe he was hiding his
engineering talents. On that Christmas morning years ago, we found a beautiful
red barn with white trim—and a hinged haymow door that had us baling the carpet
and hoisting small Lincoln logs we used for hay bales.
My brothers and I were fortunate in other ways. Johnson’s
Hardware in our small town and the Ben Franklin store in the nearby county seat
had basic farm toys—cabless tractors, a wagon or two, a few plastic Holstein
cows. We could usually find packets of white plastic fence and during the
holidays, the bigger store might have something exotic like a four-row planter.
But the offerings were basic, so we had to use our imaginations to fill in the
gaps. Erector set pieces provided some props, and we could use small boxes,
marbles, thread spools, or other items to make grain feeders, pig sheds, or
water tanks. On special occasions, we used jelly beans or M&M’s for grain,
but not surprisingly, the yield was mighty small by the time those loads made
it to market.
Our animals looked like early versions of genetic engineering
gone bad. They were mismatched sizes, several were bent from being stepped on,
and at times I imagine a horse or camel was used to fill out the cattle herd in
the pasture. The tractors weren’t much better. Enough of the tire rubber came
off you’d think we were in the steel wheel era, and most of them had scrapes or
mud left over from the summer when we’d set up a farm in the lane.
On winter days, we could work in 70 degree comfort as sun rays
slanted in through the large picture window. Most of the cattle grazed
comfortably in one spot unless my younger brother ran through the room and did
a five-year-old’s version of cow-tipping. We probably had to move the operation
to the “South Forty” at times when Mom and Dad needed the living room, but some
type of farming occurred on the carpet until the spring thaw arrived.
Now, when I check the Internet or walk through kids’ stores, I
see plenty of the basic “Old Macdonald’s Farms” for the little ones, and an impressive
variety of machines ranging from classics to high-tech monsters. But with fewer
family farms dotting the countryside, I wonder if the “let’s play farm”
experiences are the same. Old-style windmills, slatted corn cribs, and small,
square hay bales are probably found only in the relics section on eBay. And now
that we see so few pigs, chickens, or even cattle in the open air, I’d imagine
the Christmas morning carpet is covered with less livestock--and many more
action figures or discarded video game boxes.
I can understand. Even most farm kids aren’t going to ask for a
confinement building or a liquid manure spreader for Christmas. Then again, you
never know. I recall occasionally spreading shredded paper manure on the carpet
after cleaning the pens in that classic red barn. We must have stepped in it
too. Seems that once you’ve lived on a farm, it’s awfully hard to scrape the
lifestyle and good memories off your boots.
by dan gogerty (barn photo from facebook.com; carpet photo from
aquietlifeinaloudhouse.blogspot)
