Month: June 2021

June 19, 2021

My friend from one street over noticed something shiny, a sun reflection by the street. He checked it out, then called me. “Dan, did you lose a Farmall memento?”

No.

Before long he came over to the porch and handed me this:

It’s a Farmall photo on a 12×16 tin! Sealed in a strong plastic bag and never opened. How did it get to the side of the street? No Farmall fan would discard such an item. Perhaps it was purchased at a garage sale, laid on the bed of a pickup truck, then blown off.

After due admiration and thanks to Roger, I took the tin poster to my shop where I began ruminating on the vivid memory of adults (only males?) who grew up on farms and specifically their continued attachment to farm tractors. A week ago I posted on Facebook a photo of a Farmall owned by Tom Gunden. He lets me drive it when I am up his way.

Here are unedited response to the Facebook entry.

Verlin Miller: The first tractor I remember was a Super C. Dad’s first new tractor.

John D. Ingold: My dad had only FARMALL tractors. We went from the H & the B to the M and MT before I went to college.

Delmar Good: Ah yes, and all the debates about red vs green. (But I was odd man out since my green was Oliver, not John Deere. )

Richard Stoltzfus: Very familiar with it but more so with the H. My dad had an Oliver 66 which had a similar rating to the H. Another neighbor had a John Deere B which had a similar rating. I can still hear the 2 cylinder putt putt. Pleasant memories.

Leon Stutzman: I grew up on an Allis Chalmers.

Richard A. Kauffman: My grandfather had a Farmall, but I don’t remember which class. He also had an Allis-Chalmers. Remember those?

Loren Swartzendruber: My family sold JI Case and New Holland equipment. We knew what the AC in Allis Chalmers really stood for. I married into a John Deere family. That may have been more contentious than any theological differences!

Richard A Kauffman : Loren, it’s a wonder your marriage has lasted all these years.

Loren Swartzendruber: Richard, it’s called grace! And a lot of patience on her part. If I had stayed in the family business it might have been more challenging—or maybe I would have converted them. Probably not!

Warren Yoder: is interesting how we changed vocationally from generation to generation. My grandparents were predominately dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood-specifically, dairy. We farmed a wonderful 120 acres from age 6-12 but dad always had a factory job too.-great memories. Between my parents and their collective 13 sibs, only one farmed. Among my, approximately, 50 first cousins there are zero farmers. My children and grandchildren know nothing of this discussion.

Henry H. Hershey: Farmall Super M was our larger tractor in conjunction with a Farmall H. Then an International 350 high utility with a torque converter and then a Farmall 706 diesel to pull the three bottom roll over plow.

Jay Brubaker: We had a Farmall M that had been retrofitted with hydraulics that we used daily on our farm until the farm was sold in 1996.

Mike Yoder: Do retired professors suffer from tractor envy? We had a Fordson, a John Deere A and 730, and several Massey Fergusons, but I really liked my grandpa’s Farmall Super M

Wilmer Martin: I spent many hours on a Farmall M. Great Photo

Allen Peachey: My dad was also a Farmall tractor man. We had a B, a C and an M.

Elton Bomberger: I touch a number of Farmalls.

June 8, 2021

This is a tribute to Don and Chris Lundberg, Goshen College grads whom I did not know well when I was on campus. After graduation they moved to Indy for further studies. She became a nurse, he a social worker. His work somehow or other led him into law. Both were successful professionally. Don was highly regarded in legal circles. Yet both of them retained their genuine and creative and generous spirits.

Joy was attending a garden walk in Irvington when Don heard her name and introduced himself. It was a pleasant meeting but we didn’t connect significantly with them until we moved to Bolton Avenue. Our new residence happened to abut theirs that faced onto Campbell.

We noticed immediately that their house resembled our long-time residence in Goshen. Our associating, always cordial, usually occurred when they or we were taking our walks. They hosted a party for me when I returned from my walk on El Camino in Spain.

But we knew very little about their 1.7 acre property despite our properties abutting. Why? Between our properties is a city right of way that is nonfunctional because the city allowed the selling of building sites at the north and south ends. However the city, I guess it was, installed a high thick wired fence against the east side of the easement onto which grew a thick mop of euonymous. We could not see through it. On the occasion of a fallen tree, Don and I agreed to let the branches on either side to be the next year’s homework for each of us on our respective side.

Well, I/we finally got to see the property. Let me show it to you in parts.

The north side of the house and garage.

Looking at the buildings from the west.

The white chairs surround a fire pit shown below.

Don and Chris built two water features, a fish pond and a Japanese Bowl.

A sledding hill

and lovely footpaths.

How have I come to know this site? Don and Chris sold their lovely property to our son Courtney and his partner Heather. Thank you Don and Chris for your love of nature and beauty.>

June 4, 2021 … Garden notes

rain — June has been generous with two garden gifts: rain and warm weather.

the compost pile — The pile is quite warm today, thanks to the rain, the sun, and all of the micro-organism at work.

sun flowers — Not sure what prompted me last year to buy a pack of sunflower seeds. What a pleasant sight for us and feast for the birds. I have a photo to show their 8-foot plus height. This years sunflowers sprouted from seeds the birds overlooked last year.

robins — They hop and stop, hop and stop. During those pauses, do they depend on sight or sound to find insect/worm food?

calla lillies — The neighbor has been invited to pick callas for the party tomorrow.

the little spruce — Wish I could document the journey of this little coniferous evergreen from its seedling state to its being dropped here, wedged by a sturdy oak leaf hydrangea, a stone wall and a euonymus-covered stump. 

service berries — Sorry, birds, your early June specialty was killed by frost.

June 3, 2020

Our beloved Soup Group enjoyed two days together. Joy Hess, Carolyn and John Hertzler, Phyllis and Ervin Beck, Dan Hess, Jan and Larry Yoder.

What did we talk about?

books and ideas
aches and pains
Amish and Mennonites
gender and language
journeys and adventures
age and memory
food and drinks
bedtime and rising time
children and grandchildren
walks and drives
school and church
language and idioms

and stuff if I repeated it would be screamed at!

June 1, 2021

Looking June over …

from the patio …

from the back yard …

from the calla bed

from the neighbors’ pond —

June looks rather good.

May 31, 2021

This morning, on musing about the month of May, an odd question came to mind:  how many months have I lived.  How many?  One thousand and one.  Incredible.

This month has been lovely and provocative and sad and loaded with goodwill.

During May people in this part of the world seemed to be  emerging from Covid. Here in Indianapolis we are  required to wear masks (which we don’t mind doing) until June 6. All of my acquaintances have received their two shots. Joy and I have eaten out one time — at breakfast. To the best of my knowledge no close acquaintances have died from the virus.  Joy and I have benefited from this stay-at-home period, perhaps because we live in a friendly community, we are surrounded by lawn and garden, books, crossword puzzles and of course Zoom.

Zoom has modified interaction with close friends and at the same time has extended the range of interactions. During this month I/we have zoomed with high school buddies, with close college friends, with profs fromGoshen, with a long-standing small group, with our writers club here in Indy, with a book club, with a Sunday school class and with an international service organization. Some people dislike zooming; I enjoy the opportunities for friendship.

The month of May opened doors to spiritual refreshment. A Sunday school class asked me to share my thoughts on faith and doubt. At first I thought to reject the invitation; I’m grateful that I didn’t. Tracing my own spiritual journey, with a focus on mythology and sacred myth, forced me to become both more comprehensive in my thinking and, at the same time, freer to experience the possibilities of faith sharing. Unexpectedly the presentation led to exchanges of books. For me the most stimulating of the shared texts were written by Margaret Brown Taylor.

Our family contributed to this good month. Grandson Sam did The Iron Man. Grandson Jordan rented an old fire station in Salt Lake City, equipping it to be his violin-making shop. Daughter Gretchen showed us how to be positive in the face of a health issue. Daughter Ingrid is awaiting the ticket to fly to Ireland on a Fulbright assignment. Son Courtney and Heather got possession of their house on April 30, opening up May for work. It was total pleasure to set a gate through our back fence to Courtney and Heather’s property. Granddaughters Lucy and Annie received year-end honors at the respective schools and Annie caught a pop up to end a softball game in a league for girls 10 and 11.

My 1001 month offered relief from plantar fasciitis. I am able to walk three blocks without pain.

I conclude upon careful comparison that this May ’s flower and tree show and our vegetable garden have been all-time winners.

Unfortunately the Month contained downers. On more than one occasion, I walked away from the evening national-international news because it hurt too much to see suffering. Gun shootings came close home; eight employees at the local Fed Ex depot were shot dead. The gunner then killed himself. My friend Theron Schlabach, who asked a long meandering yet profound question after my faith and doubt presentation, died. And Carl, while riding a campus cart, was hit by a car; he suffers facial injuries.

Yet the positives outweigh the negatives. Joy seems not to mind helping me locate the word that my memory has lost. Phone conversations with my brother Hal are a hoot. The 17 year correspondence with Loren is healthy as ever. I enjoy regular contacts with friends Carl, Dave K, Ferne, Linda, Mil and others. Roger and Gretchen, one block over, make this world a better place. Ervin and Phyllis, John and Carolyn, Larry and Jan — thank you.

What a month … with three hours remaining in it.