What I Learned Growing up on a Farm

I think back nostalgically about my family and my early years growing up on an Iowa farm. Not everyone had an opportunity to experience the agrarian life of the 1950’s and I did not always appreciate it. In retrospect, however, I continue to practice these 10 observations every day.

1. Early to bed, early to rise makes a girl healthy, a little wealthy, and mostly wise. I still love getting up early.
2. An apple a day keeps the doctor way, and even more so if it appears in an apple pie or apple crisp.
3. After the rain is over, look for the rainbows and be ever hopeful about the pot of gold at the end. I chased rainbows as a kid and never found that pot of gold. I’m still looking.
4. Chores are routine regardless of the weather or how you feel. Animals don’t feed themselves. No excuses. Just do it.
5. When the going gets tough, don’t give up. You can’t control everything that happens. You may not achieve all that you desired, but something will happen as long as you stick with it. Later I incorporated Kenny Rogers’ advice, “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run,” and my life has been more balanced.
6. Slow down and appreciate life. There is beauty everywhere. Farm life allows one to take “minute vacations” to savor the sunshine, the animals, and the landscape. I will never forget the farm woman I interviewed for a research project who talked about being in her hay barn and seeing the sun filtering through a window and feeling she was sitting in a cathedral.
7. An 8-hour day does not exist on the farm. This knowledge prepared me to work hard and play hard my whole life.
8. Be careful what you say on the telephone if you are on a party line. That admonition applies to social media these days as you never know where something might end up. I still hate to talk on telephones—thank goodness for carefully edited email and texting.
9. Saving even a penny is worth it. The pennies add up and you never know what the future might hold. Saving was a habit that allows me to live comfortably today.
10. Few things are accomplished alone. Farm life is not an individual endeavor, and you need family, neighbors, and friends. Helping others and asking for help when needed makes my life rich.

I am not romanticizing farm life and I know townies and city kids also learned valuable lessons. I am grateful for my roots, however, and the influence of the messages I received in my rural upbringing.