You Can Take the Girl off the Farm---Please!

 

The movie “Minari” was recognized as a winner at the Academy Awards. It is the story of a Korean immigrant and his family who move to a farm in Arkansas and attempt to sell Korean produce to a market in Dallas. During the story, the barn burns down but the family stays. I know a similar story of a Texas man who left his job on the Houston ship channel and moved his family to a farm in Arkansas where he raised vegetables to sell to Bird’s Eye. Their barn burns down but the family stays.

The Texan who immigrated to Arkansas was my dad. On New Year’s Day, 1965, he packed up cows and kids and moved 500 miles to a 120 acre farm near Searcy.

I was never a good farmer’s daughter. I didn’t like dirt and bugs and sweat. I did not enjoy being chased by turkeys, was never good at milking a cow and, with all due respect to the Arkansas Razorbacks, slopping hogs was a dreaded chore. I remember a time when a chicken died, and Joe and I were to bury it. There was an obvious problem when the chicken, who did not die, was climbing out of the shallow grave and we just kept trying to make it lay down. I did not have a good relationship with farm animals. But I learned a lot about sweet potato igloos, boiling peanuts and dressing appropriately for okra picking even when Gary took my new rubber gloves.

I left the farm and moved back to Houston where I settled into city life. But my years on the farm give me a certain celebrity with my family and friends any time conversation turned to picking cotton or butchering meat.

Joe eventually married the girl from a neighboring farm and is now retired and lives just minutes from the old place. Betty and her husband built a house in East Texas where they raised kids and now raise vegetables.

Our granddaughter is committed to growing a variety of plants and has developed a certified wildlife habitat in a yard that is within five miles of the ship channel her great grandfather left all those years ago.

Martin manages his little garden and his hydroponic farmstand and my contribution is that I don’t complain that our delicious tomatoes are costing about $26.50 each. I harvested and washed lettuce one day and as I laid it on my sandwich, I saw a wasp struggling to get out of the mayonnaise. That never happens with my Kroger lettuce.

I do love a dark sky full of stars when vacationing, and the quiet of country life can calm the soul. But on a daily basis I like sitting on my porch and listening to trains passing at the edge of town or hearing the local high school band practicing for Friday night. When I drive in the dark, I prefer well-lit streets. And when I need a Diet Coke at night, I love the neon sign that says “open.”

I live in a small-town just minutes from the 4^th largest city in the United States. And it is home.