The Next Generation in real life

Ok, this is rambling and long winded, but as an old man, I just need to get those old memories and stories out of my system. I figured you all would be my victims

Back in the Late 1960s & early 70s. I had the great fortune to work for a small milk Grade B receiving plant in Coopersville, Michigan. It had formerly been a Pet Milk Receiving station for their condensed milk, but now the milk was sent to plants that made cheese, primarly Countyline Cheese in Northern Indiana. I was given the job to replace their Fieldman when he had been let go. I was given a car and I had to call on each of the 250 farmers that shipped their milk, in milk cans to the plant. A record of that "inspection" had to be sent to the State Agrigiculture Dempartment each year. That began an experience in life that I cherish to this day. I got to meet farmers and their families on each of these farms. This was the end of the era when small farmers could ship their milk in cans to receiving stations such as ours, so most of these farmers were older, and you could see the handwriting on the wall for the end of this industry, being replaced by the modern Grade A dairy farms that had milking parlors, "automatic" milking systems with pipelines, and bulk tanks. To shorten this story a bit, these farmers were the salt of the earth, wonderful hard working people, and it renewed my faith in humanity to be able to meet and talk to them, especially during the unsettling times of the late 60s and early 70s. To get back on topic, I saw many acts of unselfish kindness by farmers to their neighbors. Too many instances of a farmers wife suddenly widowed by the death of her older husband, and surrounding farmers coming in to help do her chores, and plant and harvest her crops until she could get organized and sell the farm. Sometimes that help went on for a year or a little more. The accounts are just too numerous to detail, but like it said it just renewed my faith in the good people of this earth. I saw farmers in their 90s still fit and active milking 20 cows by hand morning and night. One of them was 96 when I called on his and his wife's farm one early morning. I go invited in for coffee, and what was his second breakfast. Melted salted lard & bacon drippings in a warmed bowl in the middle of the table, that we dipped our homemade bread in. A big pile of eggs and bacon. He told me he had eaten that waly all his life. I knew he was healthier than me at age 96 with me in my early 20s. His eyesight had gotten bad enough so that he had lost his drivers license, but that didn't slow him up one bit. He just rigged a trailer on his tractor and used the tractor for his transportation to the nearby grain elevator and grocery store. You don't need a drivers license in the State of Michigan to drive a farm tractor on the roads. His neighbors kept an eye on the couple, and helped him with anything that he might not be able to manage by himself.

Ok, just one more story. I called on an old gentleman by the name of Norman Clapp, on his small farm near Fremont Michigan. He milked a few cows by hand, and shipped the milk to our dairy for many years. I came into the driveway to see the man sitting on his front steps to the old farmhouse bawling his eyes out with his old golden Lab leaning against him, looking at his master with worried eyes. I approached him, and once he got settled down, I asked him what the problem was. Seems his (now adult) kids decided that he shouldn't be driving anymore, and convinced the State Police & secretary of state that he was a menace on the road. He wasn't, and only had to drive a couple miles to the store & mill. His kids just wanted him off the farm so they could claim it, and get him in a nursing home. With tears in his eyes, he asked what he could do now that he couldn't get to town with his pickup. I remembered the experience with the 96 year old that used his tractor and told him he could do that and there was nothing his kids or the State Police could do to stop him as long as he had lights on his tractor and a slow moving veihicle sign displayed on the back of his tractor and any trailer he was pulling. So that's what he did. I stopped back about 6 months later as I was passing by his farm, and he was happy and doing OK, except for having to deal with his bastard kids. They tried to get him declared incompetent or some such thing and tried to get him in a nursing home, but were unable to get that to happen. His local farmer neighbors also helped him out when he needed it so he could keep going. About a year after I had found him on his front steps, I pulled in his driveway to see that they were getting ready to set up a farm auction. One of the farmer neighbors that I had called on in the past was there and filled me in on the news that poor Norman had suffered a stroke that dropped him in his tracks in his barn doing chores. The neighbor had seen his barn light on way to late and found him dead in the barn with the old Lab laying next to him. Unfortunately I didn't get away without meeting his bitch daughter. She came up to me and asked me who I was, and I told her I was Norman's Fieldman representative from the dairy he shipped his milk to. She put it together that I was the one that had given Norman the idea he could use his tractor to replace his pickup truck for transportation. If looks could kill I was dead right there. I left with sadness that Norman was gone, but with the very great personal satisfaction that I had helped give Norman and his old dog one more happy life on his farm, along with the help of his neighbors.