PROFESSIONAL I ADMIRE MOST

What profession do you admire most and why?

The farmer is who I admire most. I grew up on a farm in the 1950s, and the daily schedule was mostly like the following.

My father would awaken from sleep at 5am, shower, get dressed t-shirt, underwear, coveralls, and black pull-on work boots.

He would come down the stairs and proceed to the kitchen for his first cup of strong, black coffee, eat a breakfast of eggs, over-easy, 2-4 pieces of bacon, and 2 slices of toast.

After finishing breakfast, my father filled a thermos bottle with strong, black coffee for the morning, put on a farm implement baseball cap, and start his day at 5am.

This would include preparing fields for planting on a tractor pulling a disk harrow. If not working in the fields, my father would start repairing tractors, farm machinery, and other equipment, such as pickups. During this time he would take a 15 break to drink hot, strong, black coffee.

At noon, my father returned to the house, washed his face and hands on the laundry room sink. Then my father would come through the door from the laundry room into the kitchen. Lunch was ready to eat and he drank more hot, strong, black coffee, while eating his lunch.

After he was finished eating, my father went through the swinging door that led to the dining room and proceeded into the living room, down the hall where my father entered the office, containing a large oak, roll-up desk, where bills would be paid. In the office was a couch where my father would lay down, covered by his 2 brown Army blankets from his time in the Army (June 1940 to December 1945) serving in the European Theatre from 1944 to 1945. He was a Master Sergeant/First Sergeant, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and received a Bronze Medal.

After being released from the Army in December 1945, my father moved to Yolo County and married my mother. Her father gave the newlyweds a parcel of land(160 acres). The newlyweds stayed in a small house on the farm, and my father, with help from other farmers, built a 2 story home that took 4 years to complete. It also had a large basement with a safe imbedded in concrete.

Most people don’t realize how much we depend on their hard work 365 days a year. We planted wheat (bread), alfalfa (feed for cattle), beefsteak tomatoes (43