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I was born in Texas though about half my childhood was spent in Little Falls Minn. I remember there was a Crestliner boat plant there and it seems to be that just a block or so down river there was a small Lund factory as well. I remember seeing the red and silver boats and thinking they were much nicer looking. This would have been in the late 60's till mid 70's. My father in law recently bought one here around Seattle, though I don't know where he got it. It really was a nice place to grow up. We had a beautiful place on the Mississippi--nice house and about 5 acres. Not really a farm per se but close enough to be fairly familiar with that type of thing. My mother was born and grew up on a large farm in Manitoba about 70 miles east and a little south of Winnipeg, where we always spent part of our summers. We thought we were quite a help though in reality we were probably just in the way. I remember one of my uncles was particularily grouchy. I know I must have blundered in many times where angels would have feared to tread but such was the innocence of youth. The other uncle finally sold the ancestral farm this past spring where my mother grew up. Neither of his boys had any interest in it. A beautiful couple of hundred acres, with a nice 30 year old house he had built. A large old barn like was common in the midwest, plently of out buildings in good shape. It bordered a medium sized river. It sold for around 370,000 Canadian, which is more like not quite 300,000 American. The cost of a large house in town around here. I gave some real thought to wondering how I could make it work myself and how I could risk everything I had and try to buy it and make it work. In the end I believed that it would be diservice to my wife, family and parents who are now getting up in years. Even if this would not have been the case I suspect that I would have quickly lost it. As it is it seems a farmer who knows what he is doing is doing good to make a profit. Trying to get the learning curve down, after I had already tied up all my capital would likely have been the fast track to bankruptcy. Nevertheless I was crushed to see it sold. We moved north of Seattle in the late 70's as my father gave law school a try. It quickly proved to be a mistake on a number of levels. It was a bad time in all our lives. For about a decade just about everything went wrong for our family. It was really weird. One of the things that did not help was that we found people here to be distinctly less friendly. I remember we literally did not have the first truck unloaded before the neighbors from over the cliff came bicycling up the hill on the pretense of looking for a goat and quickly informed us that "There is no reason to ever come down that hill." So saying we never did. We never knew or spoke to the vast majority of our neighbors. They never waved, or so much as made eye contact when driving by. To say that it was weird hardly conveys the idea. It was like something out of the Twilight Zone. Eventually I just gave up trying and came to the conclusion that it is just the way people are around here. I guess I'll just never understand it. I wondered if it was me or my imagination or just what. But the point was brought home once again when last summer my dad and I drove back to Manitoba to retrieve some family heirlooms that would otherwise have been consigned to the auction. Both there and on our drive beginning about in Montana and increasing noticeably through North Dakota's people were once again the way I remember them and simply expected decent people to act. They looked at you, smiled, said something pleasant or actually took a few minutes to converse. In a couple of cases wherein we stopped to retrieve some glass telephone insulators or other treasure, people almost immediately pulled over and asked whether something was wrong and if we needed help. You simply don't see that around here. Ever. I can pick out someone in a group who has come from the midwest quite quickly. It involves mannerisms, what they say and curiously in many cases what they do NOT say. I have hung on to several treasured expressions, pronunciations and words that I remember well. God bless those from the midwest, none more so than the honest and hard working farmer. I married a local girl who I met in church and this week we will celebrate our 21'st anniversary. We have three well behaved and attractive children for whom I am very thankful. Daughter 15, son 11 and son 7. I attended a local college for a couple of years and was a cabinet maker for not quite 10 years following at a high end custom cabinet shop. It seemed like a good job when I was young, first married with Loretta working and we had few responsibilities or bills. It quickly became apparent however that it was NOT going to be a good job when Loretta became pregnant. We had no retirement, and the boss paid my medical though I would have to pay Loretta's and any children's out of my modest pay check. Hardly the type of thing to build on. What followed next was a series of fortuitous events which eventually landed me in a local electrical apprenticeship. I have been an electrician for about 15 years and it has worked out pretty well so far. Though in truth I thank the Lord for his guidance and care because I have seen so many of those around me for whom it has not gone half so well. I have a 1937 F12 that I paid FAR too much for at the time. I would be embarrassed to say how much. It shocks me to see how they go for a song in the midwest. The engine and one wheel were frozen and it probably had not run in my lifetime. I had wanted one for years and I bought it since around here they are quite hard to come by. It was quite a project for me but I restored it and it runs quite well, looking pretty much like it just came from the factory. I also bought a 1937 F20 (which once again I paid an embarrassing price for, for the same reason) that ran when I parked it but I have done almost nothing to it. I found that as the children got older the demands on my time required that I be much more a family man and that I would be making a mistake to ignore my family and devote endless hours to restoring a tractor. But someday, it is still within my intentions to do so. If my ship ever comes in I will get a small farm to keep them on. I enjoyed reading your post. Be well. Morgan
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