By Lisa Marie Stahl
Our annual fall harvest lasted less than three weeks this year. It wasnt the most bountiful crop in the area because we didnt get enough rain at the right time, but we are thankful to have gathered what we could.
I joined my brothers for truck rides in the evenings, but my eagerness to spend time in our beautiful golden seas of wheat fields wasnt here this year. The season quickly passed by like a blurred vision, too fast for my liking, thats for sure.
Oh, how I miss the harvest season of about a decade ago. That was back when a breakdown lasted for a day or two. Now breakdowns are worked on and attended to right away, even if into the wee hours of the night. Just as long as the problem was fixed and the combine was running with the rest of the crew the next day.
I miss the days when a lunch and supper picnic in the middle of a grain field was not just a time to eat. The guys would park their equipment around in a circle as the cooks spread out a large white blanket and set out the food.
Each day after school, we kids would argue over whos turn it was to join the cooks and help take supper out to the guys.
Those picnics were a time when the entire crew could converse for about an hour, talk over plans for that day and the next, or just discuss the everyday happenings.
Today, there is no such thing as field picnics anymore. Field picnics are thought of as time wasting. A sack lunch, either hot or cold, eaten on the go, was traded for the field picnics a couple of years ago. It was thought by both the men and women that sack lunches were the faster and easier way to go with during the harvest.
I also still recall when the combines stopped to unload on the trucks. That soon changed when the guys extended the uggers on the combines so unloading could be done on the go as well.
A few years later followed the idea of using a grain cart to unload the combines, to spare the trucks from driving through the uneven and bumpy fields.
This all is the guys version of doing things On the go or Keeping up with times. As far as I know, the only time the combines get a rest is when they are being fueled up.
Though I know things must change with the times, I wonder if its forgotten that change sometimes actually does take the fun and enjoyment out of how things were done in the old days.
