Thoughts About Times Lost

 Choptank River Sunset, 2013

In another lifetime, I delivered fertilizer to farmers in the fields from a small co-op in Wisconsin. I had this big gravity box on a straight truck, with a huge 30' phallic looking thing sticking out the back that contained an auger to get the fertilizer from my truck to the farmer's gravity box on his equipment.

It was actually kind of a cool job, because I got to drive around the countryside in the spring time. It was lovely.

In the span of my life the number of Farms has shrunk by a factor of 4 or 5. Today the average farmer is running a much larger spread than his grandfather did. Thanks to the wonders of mechanization. Today's family farmers have taken over the properties of three or four of his neighbors. That often leaves entire sets of buildings from the original farms to lie fallow if the operator doesn't need them.

One day, I found myself driving down the long drive toward one of these sets of buildings. The carefully tended fields on either side of me were a stark contrast to the disrepair and neglect exhibited by the buildings ahead. All of the sheds were leaning and collapsing upon themselves and the house was just about gone, sinking into its own basement.

As I came into the yard itself, I found myself imagining the lives that had been played out here, wondering where their children were and what they were doing now. The grass overgrown and unkempt, seemed to be pulling the swing set right into the ground as I circled around to get in line for the lane that would take me into the field beyond the yard. I was overcome with a feeling of melancholy and loss.

And then as I turned into the lane leading out to the adjoining fields, there sat this 1966 VW Micro Bus. It had either been maintained or restored to perfection. It was beautiful and in it's blase tan and white kind of way, perfect. And there on the rear window, flanked by stickers with pictures of cannabis leaves was a bumper sticker that read:


    Who are the Grateful Dead and Why do They Keep Following Me?

True Story.
 

And for those of you who "don't get it..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadhead 

-- Much Love.

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