Farmer Dan

Someone asked me yesterday what I wanted to be when I grew up. It really got me to thinking because it seems like when we're kids, we think and talk about that all the time but then when we get older, it just kinda drifts away into a recessed part of our brain. Something that occurred to me when asked this question is that of the several people involved in the conversation, not one of us is currently even remotely close to our dream! I always wanted to be a farmer. Others in the group wanted to be a fireman, an astronaut, and an architect. I suppose that some of us let reality and life limit us and we wind up going completely different directions. I remember one day, while my brother was in kindergarten, he came home with a drawing of a tractor with a boy on it in a field. They had done an art project where they had to draw what they wanted to be. On it, they were supposed to have told the teacher why they wanted to be that and she wrote it on the back. My brother's inscription on the back was that he wanted to be a farmer because that's what his big brother wanted to be! That was kinda cool. Of course, neither of us wound up following the dream....you would've thought that two people going for it would have a better shot, wouldn't you? Still, for me, the dream is still there even though I hadn't given it much thought in recent years. I do know that if I won a big lottery, I would wind up buying some land and farming equipment to take care of it but obviously, I'm never going to be a farmer. However, I was fortunate enough one summer, to work on a farm for one of my Dad's good friends. I have to say that looking back, it was a dream come true to be able to get up every day and look forward to getting on a tractor and plowing up earth. I can't even describe what it is about it that draws me but something definitely does. Of course, growing up, I never pictured my tractor having a stereo system and A/C but I am thankful that by the time I did this work, the one I used did. I cannot imagine the misery of hot Texas sun beating down on one all day long while plowing up fields...that's hard labor in the truest sense. It's a miracle farmers of yesterday didn't die of heat stroke more often. Anyways, looking back, whenever people ask me what my favorite job has been, I am able to tell of my brief farming experience from that summer. I had always hoped that I would get to go back and do it again but things didn't work out that way and I wound up with more boring and subdued jobs. Still, I consider myself lucky to at least have gotten a taste of the dream. Many don't even get that. What did you want to be?