I have been wanting to go up to our old farm north of here, to see it and to visit with old friends. Yesterday I got up and decided this was the day to do that.
Since Joyce died 2 years ago, I hadn’t been out of town. My trips in my car were ½ half mile to Aldi’s grocery store or 1 mile to Walmart. That was the extent of my travels.
I drove up to see the farm first. We had sold it to a young couple who were excited to buy the place. They assured us that they would tame the wild and keep it as it was. I hadn’t been there since we sold the farm in 2017. The town was barely changed in those years and north of town toward the farm was the same as it was. I turned on the farm road and as I passed our neighbor’s house I was surprised. The once neat pastures filled with their herd of cows was different. There wasn’t a single cow to be seen and the pasture was overgrown somewhat. Dave, the owner, was old and I heard he was not well these days. Up the hill, I slowly passed our farm site. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Instead of being tamed as promised, the pastures Joyce and I had cleared by manual labor, were totally grown over. I couldn’t see a single square foot of open pasture. It was a forest filled with overgrown trees. The trees engulfed the house on 3 sides. Only the front yard and house could be seen. On our wonderful front porch there was an old bed foundation, a steel frame and steel springs standing against the house between the front door and a front window. I learned from my friend up the road that the steel springs were put there on the day they moved in 6 years ago and were still in the same spot. For me to say the sight broke my heart, is the understatement of the year.
I passed on by and went to see the old friend from our farm days about 2 miles up the road. I knocked on the door and she came to the door and peered out to see who was there. She asked who I was and when I told her, she opened the door and welcomed me in. It’s been years since we saw each other. She and her husband are still working, though she has had health issues, she continues to work on through them. He is in good health. They have a beautiful place and still raise cows in addition to their day jobs. I think we are close to the same age, not sure at all, but they keep on going like the old Eveready bunny in the TV commercials years ago. I admire that. We had a wonderful chat.
I left there and went into the small town nearby to see another friend that I hadn't seen in years. She gave me a warm welcome. She and her husband are still working and likely will for a long time. Those friends have kept working longer than I could. She works at her Antique shop and he works as a pest control guy and does other jobs on the side. Both do a lot of work.
My drive up and back was 60 miles round trip over up and down hills and sharp turns. I was not used to that anymore, but I was impressed with my new car's (new to me, not brand new) handling. Those sharp turns on my trip turned on a road handling system that I didn’t know it had. I’m still learning all the bells and whistles on the car. The old car I had for 10 years didn’t have all the features and I was used to its handling. With the new car, it took me a while to learn how to use the air conditioning system. It has heated seats, but I’ll figure that out when it starts getting cold again. I still don't know how the rear window wiper or heater works and all the features for distributing heat and cooling. I’m getting to be an old dog that hasn’t learned any new tricks for over 10 years now. I’m still pawing and scratching into 2023 and now I have more to learn again.
An old man like me has two choices, learn how to cope with the present day, or curl up and die. I have no control over when I will die unless I do it myself. I’m not prepared for either one. So my only real choice is to boldly go into the future or let it kick me aside. I’ll let you know how that goes.
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