| Author |
Across the Fence:  This text is hauntingly familiar....  |
|
|
KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
 Posted - Mar 26 2008 : 05:56:16 AM
|
My mother bought me a Newbery Award winning young adult book titled Out of the Dust, and I found it last night in our box of books....I ran across this passage (written from the view of a teenager living in Oklahoma during the Great Depression) and immediately thought of all of our "conversations" about our own economic depression, our grandparents lives and struggles, and how to begin again. I changed the color of the lines that remind me so much of our situations--not about wheat, obviously, but you'll get the gist....
Miss Freeland said:
"During the Great War we fed the world.
We couldn't grow enough wheat
to fill all the bellies.
The price the world paid for our wheat was so high
it swelled our wallets
and our heads,
and we bought bigger tractors,
more acres,
until we had mortgages
and rent
and bills
beyond reason, but
we all felt so useful, we didn't notice.
Then the war ended and before long,
Europe didn't need our wheat anymore,
they could grow their own.
But we needed Europe's money
to pay our mortgage
our rent,
our bills.We squeezed more cattle,
more sheep,
onto less land,
and they grazed down the stubble
till they reached root.
And the price of wheat kept dropping
so we had to grow more bushels
to make the same amount of money we made before,
to pay for all that equipment, all that land,
and the more sod we plowed up
the drier things got,
because the water that used to collect there, under
the grass,
biding its time,
keeping things alive through the dry spells
wasn't there anymore.
Without the sod the water vanished,
the soil turned to dust.
Until the wind took it,
lifting it up and carrying it away.
Such a sorrow doesn't come suddenly,
there are a thousand steps to take before you get there."
For anyone who is homeschooling older children, or teaching public school, this is an incredible read. What a perspective!!!!!!
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
|
|
Miss Bee Haven
True Blue Farmgirl
4331 Posts
Janice
Louisville/Irvington
Kentucky
USA
4331 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2008 : 06:03:16 AM
|
I got a chill reading that. If only...just for once...could we not repeat history?
Farmgirl Sister #50
"If you think you've got it nailed down, then what's all that around it?"
'Br.Dave Gardner' |
 |
|
|
KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2008 : 06:35:23 AM
|
A-men, Janice. I read it and re-read it last night. If we don't learn from our history, we're bound to repeat the mistakes.
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
|
|
|
mima
True Blue Farmgirl
1573 Posts
1573 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2008 : 06:56:21 AM
|
Oh wow!!! This is definitely a print out! would love to read the book! Thanks!!!!
"No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars,or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit." Helen Keller |
|
|
|
miss wilma
True Blue Farmgirl
3410 Posts
Wilma
Knob Lick
Ky
USA
3410 Posts |
|
|
bohemiangel
True Blue Farmgirl
2087 Posts
Bridget
Ligonier
pa
USA
2087 Posts |
|
|
KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2008 : 07:49:39 AM
|
Here is the Barnes and Noble link to the book (for $5.00, it's a steal). It's written in prose, and I've read over a 2 hour period each night befor I go to sleep...I have about 20 pages left that I'm just going to take my time with. Might even read it again!!
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Out-of-the-Dust/Karen-Hesse/e/9780590371254
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
|
|
|
Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22944 Posts
22944 Posts |
Posted - Mar 26 2008 : 08:50:18 AM
|
Wow Jonni! What a find! Like Janice said- If only for once we didn't repeat history.
Unfortunately we have been seeing this exact cycle here on the Palouse. Our wheat prices sky rocketed this past year, so farmers made quite a bit of money, they have pre-sold their crops, and more and more acres are being planted to wheat instead of hay. We are already in a hay crisis, and many farmers have bought huge tractors, huge houses, huge trucks because the times are good. Tractors are on back order at many places for as much as 18 months because so many farmers bought at the same time.
Alee
Farmgirl Sister #8
www.awarmheart.com
Please come visit Nora and me on our new blog:
www.farmgirlalee.blogspot.com |
|
|
|
bohemiangel
True Blue Farmgirl
2087 Posts
Bridget
Ligonier
pa
USA
2087 Posts |
|
|
Phils Ann
True Blue Farmgirl
1095 Posts
Ann
Parsonsburg
Maryland
USA
1095 Posts |
Posted - Mar 27 2008 : 08:03:26 AM
|
Thank you Jonni... What a timely statement.
Ann
Sairy Hill Thicket
There is a Redeemer. |
|
|
|
bboopster
True Blue Farmgirl
1140 Posts
Betty Jo
West Bend
Wisconsin
USA
1140 Posts |
Posted - Mar 27 2008 : 08:24:04 AM
|
Thank you Jonni! Showed it to my husband and he loved it also. Like others have said, wish we could all learn from our past as to not repeat the same mistakes a dozen times.
http://www.bboopster.blogspot.com
3 Blue Star Mother and Proud of it!
Pray for our troops to come home safe and soon.
Enjoying the road to the simple life :>) |
|
|
|
KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
Posted - Mar 27 2008 : 08:30:13 AM
|
I'm glad you appreciate this, girls. I didn't want to be a "downer"...I simply thought it so mimicked our lives right now, it was a little chilling, really. I read it to my husband last night and he said, "wow, how like the present."
Farmgirl Sister #80, thanks to a very special farmgirl from the Bluegrass..."She was built like a watch, a study in balance ... with a neck and head so refined, like a drawing by DaVinci"...
NY Newsday sportswriter Bill Nack describing filly, Ruffian.
http://www.buyhandmade.org/ |
|
|
|
jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Mar 27 2008 : 08:59:55 AM
|
Jonni - you are not a downer at all!
That bit of writing is absolutely beautiful in it's sorrow, and in it's love of the land. We have come so far away from those days, most people probably don't know or care that water lay beneath the sod of the prairies long ago, waiting for when it was needed.
Americans thought we had endless supplies of natural resources. WE still believe that. One by one they seem to vanish. Even the work of our hands is going away.
Thank you for posting that - gosh, I love it!
Farmgirl Sister # 31
www.blueskyjeannie.blogspot.com
Psalm 51: 10-13 |
|
|
| |
Across the Fence: This text is hauntingly familiar.... |
|
This text is hauntingly familiar....
