Memories of the Family Farm…A Home Business
We didn’t think of our farm necessarily as a home business. It simply was the farm where we all pitched in, Father, Mother, we four children and Dan, the hired man. However, looking back, it definitely was a business and our home. We worked together, played together, laughed together and cried together.
My husband also grew up on a farm in a different state. His mom always said she didn’t know how she would have raised eight boys if it hadn’t been for the farm to keep them busy.
The family farm taught us to work hard and to work until the job was finished. We couldn’t shirk the work because it was our income, the food on the table, and the roof over our heads.
A friend once remarked that it was difficult to teach youngsters work ethics in todays world. If they didn’t take the garbage out, empty the waste baskets, or mow the lawn, the work would be there the next day. It would be an inconvenience, but it didn’t have the same implication as not milking the cows nor planting and harvesting the crops. The family livelihood didn’t depend on it.
In addition to teaching work ethics, the farm was a place where memories were made…cooling off in the brook after haying, getting the Christmas tree from the woods, watching baby chicks and ducklings hatch, canning fruits and vegetables (in the days before home freezers), listening to The Lone Ranger on the radio (no TV in that era), enjoying meals around the large kitchen table, hauling water from the brook when the pipes froze, getting up in the shivering cold when the fire burned low in winter…all these and more made up the family business.
One friend worked in her family’s general store, another helped his dad in his garage, still others helped on farms, worked in construction as children learned to do tasks that prepared them for becoming entrepreneurs in future years. They may not have stayed in the family businesses, but they received a foundation for life…and a legacy to pass along to future generations…who sometimes get tired of Gram and Gramps saying, “When I was your age……..”
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen
Tags: baby chicks, canning fruits and vegetables, ducklings, Entrepreneurship, family business, family farm, family farm legacy, family legacy, farm, general store, haying, home-+-biz-+-notes, home-business, Mary-+-Emma-+-Allen, memories, The Lone Ranger, work ethicsShare This
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Advantages, Channel Theme Day, Entrepreneurship, Family, Home Business Opportunities, Kids & Business
1 opinion for Memories of the Family Farm…A Home Business
Lillie Ammann
May 29, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Mary Emma,
This brought memories of my own time of growing up and working on the family farm.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: