Thursday Ramble: Growing up on a Farm

 Neil over at Yorkshire Pudding recently posted wondering about growing up on a farm, in a rural area.  Today, few people do grow up this way, less than 15% of the United States population lives on an active farm today.  It was 80% when my grandparents were growing up.  

My paternal grandfather bought an 80 acre farm during World War II, about 60 miles north of Detroit, in the middle of nowhere.  In the mid 1950's, my parents moved out to the farm, built a small house, and a couple of years later my grandparents moved out to the farm.  The farm is 1 1/2 miles from the nearest paved road.  There were three neighbors within 1/2 a mile, all were older adults, one house changed ownership when I was about 10 with a family with kids moving in.  We were about 5 miles outside the nearest Village, where the local shops and schools are.  

By the time I was a child, my family had stopped "farming" the farm. A few fields would be rented to neighboring farmers. The primary purpose for us was to host the honey-farm, there were about 60 colonies of bees along the side of one of the back fields.  The honey processing plant was next to my grandfather's garage.  I spent my teen years working in the honey plant in the summer and weekends into the fall each. 

As the youngest for 4 kids, I grew up without children around. Children and babies still mystify me. Social contact was limited.  In many ways I am still a soloist, very comfortable being alone, taking long walks, being fiercely independent. 

What do a retain from that experience? A simple joy in being alone. In quiet. In long walks without seeing another person.  An ability to entertain myself. The ability to recognize pretty much everything there is to grow or raise on a farm. An understanding of what goes into feeding the world's population, the work, the challenges, crop failures, and bumper harvests.  It shaped how I view money and finance, farmers never know what the next harvest will be like and avoid debt if at all possible. The value of good neighbors, you have to be a good neighbor to have good neighbors. To live for days without visiting a store or shop.  I could cook for a couple of weeks with what is in the pantry and refrigerator, living on the farm, you lived that way.