Back to Basics

Those of you that have known me or my dad know that I grew up on a small hold farm. We only had 10 acres and a dozen cattle or so, but we also raised chickens, goats, ducks, and turkey, and we grew our own vegetables as well. When dad bought the place, He and Grandpa stretched barbed wire around all 10 acres, and they erected the barn. I grew up doing farm chores like tending animals, hauling water, weeding vegetables, and the million other mundane tasks that comes with keeping up a small farm. It was hard work, but it was fulfilling. I know the value of a day's labor.

I decided to get educated, and went on to college in hopes of not having to worry about things like the tomatoes coming in or hoof rot. I am proud of where I came from, but the work, although rewarding, can be back-breaking, too. So I went to college, and got a degree. I graduated in one of the worst economic climates in the past 20 years. I bought 4 shiny new suits after graduation and went to Florida. Me and my wife have done okay for ourselves, but I got tired of management quickly, and have gravitated back to historic interpretation, which I did in college. It doesn't pay as well, but I'm much happier.

I've been thinking about my job change a lot lately, and I've come to realise that happiness counts for a lot.

I have a nice house in a working class neighborhood, and (mostly) good neighbors. We have a picket fence. We have all the trappings of a middle-America life, and many of my friends here are envious of our situation. From the outside it does look attractive.

But I miss being self-sufficient. I miss having land where I can shoot when I feel like it. Where I can hunt duck or deer or rabbit. I miss cooking food that I grew or that I shot and processed.

My job makes me happy because while the main purpose of my job is to educate visitors, I still get to make things with my hands that I feel a pride in making. Taking pride in what you do and the things you make is important. I can't feel the same pride in filling out an accounts receivable ledger as I can in making a pot lid in the blacksmith shop. I can't take the same pride in my gumbos using all store bought ingredients as I can when I grew or raised 70% of the ingredients myself.

And I can't take the same pride in paying my sewer bill as in knowing I sunk the septic tank in the back yard myself.

I now understand why dad felt a need to be a farmer when I was young. Sure, he's semi-retired now, and lives on a street with close neighbors, but the fact is, at one point in his life he felt a NEED to live that way, and he did. And it was rewarding. And it was a good way to raise children, and bring us up with a good work ethic. I'm feeling that need.

I need to grow a garden. I need to hunt. I need to make my life with my own two hands.

Looking back on my childhood, it was an enviable life. Much more so than the one with the picket fence.