Paul & Company
Did you come up listening to Paul Harvey? I don't recall when I started listening to him but when I heard his voice, it hooked me. He has an identifiable voice much like Donald Sutherland, Morgan Freeman, Burl Ives, Dame Judi Dench, Tom Hanks & more. A good distinguishable voice can keep a career moving along long after looks & body fade on a person. The voice can carry on and still touch us audibly while provoking thought within us.
Borrowed & copied from BING:
Paul Harvey Aurandt was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast News and Comment on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous The Rest of the Story segments.
From 1951 to 2008, his programs reached as many as 24 million people per week.
I was a New Englander for the better part of 29 years hailing from Dorchester, Mass, lived a couple years in Cape Cod - Hyannis, Mass & many towns in Maine (Mexico, Augusta, Waterville, Lewiston/Auburn, Portland) & I spent time in New Hampshire for a bit as well.
Fort Jackson, S. C, Fort McClellan, Alabama & Fort Myers, Viriginia. I even sat a spell at Fort Riley, Kansas. I've lived in New Goshen, Seelyville & Terre Haute, Indiana. I've now spent more time in the Southern & Mid-West states by a couple of years than in New England.
Part of living in the MW is you learn a lot about companies originating from Terre Haute, Indiana. Clabber Girl, Coco-Cola & more currently The Rose Hulman Institute of Technology & The Terre Haute Brewing Company, to name a few.
And then there is the tradition of farming & agriculture. You don't hear a lot about "the farmer" until there is a shortage. A drought. A drop in prices or rise depending on the condition of the economy. A politician who seems to only show up when they need the vote. Or a gathering of local landowners who pull it together because they "heard Bob down the road had a heart attack and needs to get his crops in" and they all pull together and 'git it done'.
You definitely don't hear about the 3 or 4 a.m. riser who walks to their barn half dead to the world from lack of sleep the day before with a thermos full of coffee to zap his brain open, ready & awake & a cold lunch to hold him over until dinner. You don't hear about his wife spending a good deal of time alone because she is the backbone of the home while he's the master in his field. You don't hear about how sometimes the only time he gets with his kids is when he puts them on his knee when running the combine through the field. You don't hear a lot about the farmer until the 'cow states' or others needing the grain & soy we produce, need it.
You don't hear much about the farmer, but you see it.
And then, there is the female farmer who has had become as tough as her male counterpart. She too can run the gigantic equipment while breast feeding her kid. She gets up an hour earlier to make sure there is a breakfast on the table before they 'head out the door'. She has her hands elbow deep in the back end of a sentient helping it to foal or calve. She is not shy about the job that needs done, she just does it. She'll do her exhausted cry in the barn while throwing hay or cleaning up muck and then she pulls up her bootstraps and re-engages farm life as it waits on no one. That is simply put, what women do. We are tough, strong, loud & quiet when need arises, and we too have needs. But the farm comes first & her family is close behind. She gets it done because it must be done.
We are just shy of route 66 so many a truck has made her journey through our parts. Many a farm can be seen from a country drive & many a farmer can be seen working the fields. I've lived in and around Terre Haute & some of her outskirt towns for some time now, going on 30 years plus. Long enough to study and learn the ways of farmers from afar. Knowing, corn that rises knee high by July is a good thing and soy leaves that blanket rather than cover the ground is profit. And grain silo's, you hear the hum of the machines from afar filling the silo's all day long. You don't begrudge the noise of the equipment from start to finish as you know, their profits become your profits and so it goes down the line. You do NOT want to hear quiet on a farm. It's the worst sound you can imagine. I find solace listening to my agricultural neighbors duking it out with the land and winning. I love seeing the lights in the field when it's dark & they're still out their slugging it out. It's quite a sight to behold.
I had an appointment this week and as drove by growing corn all I could think about was two things "So God Made A Farmer" & "Knee high by July". I smiled. I took that smile & feel good into therapy with me knowing I needed some relief. When you've experienced a lot of traumas, working through the demons can be a heavy task. But that corn I was driving by called out to me quietly as I was listening to Alabama's "40 hour week" and I thought to myself, none of the professions they speak of actually work 40 hour weeks. They generally put in much more to provide the conveniences we either take for granted or don't realize just what goes into serving us.
And then, I thought about Paul Harvey.
I personally listened to him on Mid-day Saturdays which does place it in a general time frame for me as to when it started. I adored his "The Rest Of The Story" segments. My gosh they were good and there is nothing on radio like it anymore. It kind of felt like a part of America died when this great passed on. I loved his delivery, his emphasis & his emotion when you could tell he was touched by own words within the story. A few of his segments stuck with me over time and one of those is "So God Made A Farmer".
So, for the MidWest Farmers, we thank you for unintentionally providing me a moment I was asked to be mindful of and it did not pass me by.
"Knee high by July", Paul Harvey & smile on my face.
