By Rick Houser-
It is safe to say that I love the farm life. It is also safe to say that I enjoyed my years as a farmer. From early spring until late in the fall, I had to be out on the farm and in the fields working. As the song from the old sitcom “Green Acres” said, “Farm living is the place for me!” There have always been so many positives about working in the fields, soaking up the sun,, and breathing all of the fresh air. Yes, country life is a good life. Now with all of the positive hype delivered I have just one question.
Why in the world did it seem that I always got caught the furthest away from cover when a rainstorm would brew up? There have been days when I would be out in a field on the tractor and maybe I would be plowing or mowing hay and above me the field would be blue skies and a bright red sun. You smiled as you worked because life felt so positively perfect. That was until out of nowhere the wind would begin to blow a little harder than it had and all of a sudden the sun was covered by a black sky. Now I knew what was coming but when you are so far from cover, it seemed inevitable that I was to be rained on.
I would get rained on along with the loud roars of thunder and the thing that gave me the most cause to worry were the loud and big bolts of lightning. I would always recall my Dad telling me of a man working on his tractor in a field and a bolt of lightning struck him and killed him right then and there. I am certain that this had happened but to recall it as I’m riding the tractor as fast as I can across a rough field was just bad timing on my part.
I would make it to a barn or a shed or sometimes a grove of trees. (Not a great choice was the trees but when getting soaked it soundd better.) Sometimes it rained so hard and if I was still too far away from a building, I would turn off the tractor and crawl under it and get some relief from the storm. When you are laying under a small tractor and the wind picks up and begins to blow the rain sideways, all your shelter disappears and there I would lie on my back and ask myself, “Just why oh why did I decide farming was the place to be?”
A storm can surprise you even when you are on foot. I have been caught loading hay and trying my hardest to get the hay loaded in a dry barn before the rain would start and end up under the wagon and allowing the hay to get wet. Something worse in my mind was when we would be cutting tobacco and be on the far end of a long row when a storm decided it was time to pour down the rain. Friends, I might have been a lot of things but a fast runner was not one of them. Actually, on occasions like that I would just walk back to the truck and let the rain soak me. When you are cutting tobacco, you get very hot and soaked in sweat so a rain shower actually felt pretty good.
I don’t know just why but a summer rain just seems to show up unannounced and leaves just about as quickly. I know I have been out playing with my friends in the woods and are caught just like in the fields as far away as you could get from shelter. I guess in those woods and fields I learned how to improvise or just accept what you are about to receive. Another factor about a summer storm is that the rain cools the area very fast and when you have become soaked from head to toe you can get a chill on a hot summer’s day. That just does not seem right to me at all. But then again Mother Nature never ask me either.
I found it interesting also that once under cover I have stood in a doorway and just watched and somewhat enjoyed seeing a storm pass through and seeing it lose its strength as it departs your area. I’ve stood in the doorway of a tobacco barn or a hay barn with the rest of the crew and as that rain beat on the metal roof the men would begin to tell stories. (I guess it is just natural for men to do this.) Of course, the majority of the stories would begin with a question. A man would ask,”So you think this was a hard rain?” Then to follow it up the same man would answer with when he had seen a harder one. This would be followed by another member of the crew with a larger story of a big rain and followed by yet another and continue until the rains would stop and we were released from what had ended a day’s work in the fields.
I feel confident that most of you have been a victim of a sudden summer pop-up storm. I guess one of the prices we have to pay for warm and sunny summer days is an occasional pop-up storm and a soaking that is usually inconvenient. Still, I really do feel that being on the back side of the farm and being caught in a storm was the most helpless feeling a person could experience. As a little boy when a big rain would come, I would run out into it and look for a muddy place to walk barefoot in. It was one good thing from these storms and I took advantage every chance I could. Little boys in the rain playing in the mud- I thought this to be a most enjoyable time. I will say that if you had asked my Mom there would have been a much more realistic answer. But what do Moms know about mud?
Rick Houser grew up on a farm near Moscow in Clermont County and loves to share stories about this youth and other topics. If you would like to read more stories by Rick, he has two books for sale and he can be reached at houser734@yahoo.com.
