Last night a close friend of mine went with me to visit my Grandparents north of town a bit. As we approached what my family calls "the farm," I pointed out our barn and the land around it. To my surprise she laughed and told me her Dad's land was directly across the road and that it had been in her family for years.
All these years growing up together and yet we never knew our fathers farmed right next to each other.
When we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house, I introduced my friend to them as Doris' granddaughter. They knew exactly who Doris was. Grandpa guessed her Dad's name and then quickly put it all together. He said he had hired her Dad to do welding for him years ago.
How funny, I thought, that we are all so deeply and richly connected.
I know that we all started from Adam and Eve and that everyone is indefinitely connected and that some people spend billions of hours researching all of this history, but from a simple, small-town aspect, I think it's wonderfully fascinating.
Amber is not the only one of my friends with whom my family is deeply connected.
Many years ago my friend Kaley's family settled in Manitou, Oklahoma. That microscopic town is the same place where my grandparents grew up--Grandma on the east side and Grandpa on the west side.
Grandpa always remembers Kaley's grandparents. Yesterday I asked him to remind me how he knew Gail, Kaley's Grandmother. He explained that He worked closely on the school board with her husband, Ray. He then went on to tell a funny story about Ray.
Ray was a few years younger than me. I was young then too, working at the gin at nights and driving the school bus in the mornings. Because I worked at the gin at nights, I always had stuff in my eyes and was somewhat sleepy when I drove the school bus. Ray had to be in about 1st or 2nd grade. He was a tiny little boy.
One day I was driving the bus and I couldn't see well so I just followed the ruts in the road that had been left by a good rain and some mud. As I was driving I hit the rut wrong and Ray was sitting at the very back of the bus. The bus bounced hard and Ray flew up in the air and hit the seat in front of him pretty hard. It knocked the wind out of him! Fortunately, I backed up a ways to his house and his mother talked to him and told him he was okay, and he was.
My friend Jacob was identified by my grandparent's as Tony's boy. Tony used to cut hay for grandpa years ago.
Jessica's Memaw grew up west of my family's homestead place. She was one of 4 sisters. Grandpa remembers playing baseball near their house.
When I was little I remember my Dad always talking to an old cowboy type of fella. He was the first person I had ever met with throat cancer. He had to put a vibrating pen type of thing up to his throat to rub against his vocal chords so he could talk to dad. Sometimes dad still couldn't decipher the message so Stewart would pull a pad of paper out and write it down.Stewart lived in the trailer house across the field from Grandma and Grandpa's house. Dad farmed most of the land all around it, but not the pasture that Stewart's house sat on.
When I was still fairly young, Stewart passed away and I learned that he was a step-grandpa to one of my best friend's--Abbye. My dad now owns Stewart's land and trailer house. In high school Abbye and I had several get-together's in the barn next door to it.
It's funny how we are all related. It's funny how my closest friends are more than just friends. Their family is tied to the land like mine is, and their families' roots are intermixed with my family's. I guess in a way that makes us more than just friends.
I love that this is a benefit that comes from being raised in a rural, agriculturally-based, small community.
I could be wrong, but I would find it hard to imagine city-folk having the same type of experiences. Our mobile society has taken away some meaning to things like this.
Fortunately, my hometown friends are still dear to me, and me to them and we try to get together on holidays and special occasions at least a few times a year.
Thank God for small towns and farm land....keeping people together since at least the land run of the 1900's.
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