The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Enjoying the old ways:

by Dessa Rodeffer, Publisher/Owner

4 September 2002

I have to really say how much I enjoyed watching the men work together at the Henderson County Olde Tyme Show this weekend at Stronghurst.

I guess what I liked best about watching the activities, was the way everyone was working together on the threshing, the baling, and on the sawmill.

I wondered if they really had that much neighborly help or if that is why farmers needed to have such big families.

Hearing that Denny and Lewis Arnold of Raritan and their sisters wanted to keep alive their dad's love for his work of threshing and baling was very moving to me.

As I watched these men work, hearing one man's grandfather had been killed in a cornpicker when his pants were caught, made me think of the many dangers that farmers face everyday as they go to their jobs on the farm.

Just a couple weeks ago, my niece's boyfriend cut his neck with a bean knife which required surgery, and it was really close from being worse than that.

The love for the land, their crops, and their livestock seems to grow stronger and stronger, the harder they toil.

I realized some time ago, when Faith Mikita taught me bread making skills, that the hours I put into that bread, did make it seem more valuable and it gave me some kind of good feeling that a bread-maker doesn't produce.

Maybe, it's the same as raising our kids. The times it is the hardest between a parent and a child, the times we have the tears and the strong words, are the times our hearts are most affected.

I'm glad for those who have worked so hard to bring part of the past to the present. It helps us better understand and appreciate what we have.

As I watched Jim Taylor and his crew saw lumber, I more fully appreciate what it means to be able to purchase wood or a piece of furniture.