Summer is here and all the children are out of school. Our office is buzzing with activity. Young folks from across the county come to participate in an assortment of Summer Fun activities coordinated by our 4-H staff. Some of them come with their parents to sign up for summer 4-H camp or other summer youth activities that we have planned.

I make a point to chat with many of the youth while they are here. Some of them are shy and will hardly speak. But many of them are bubbling with enthusiasm, and you can hardly keep them from talking.

It is interesting to hear them tell how excited they are that school is out and tell about all the things they have planned for the summer. They tell about being able to sleep late, to play with their friends, to watch more TV, to go to the pool, and to go to camp, Some of them don't go to just one camp; they go to three or four different camps during the summer. Many of them tell about the summer vacation their family is planning to exotic places like Disney World, the mountains, long road trips, or a week at the beach.

As I talk to these young folks, I cannot help but remember when I was a kid. Until I reached the age of about ten years old, I guess I was just as excited as they are that school was out. No more teachers, no more books, and no more stuffy classrooms.

But for farm kids 40 or 50 years ago, after you reached a certain age, summer vacation took on an entirely different meaning. I grew up on a small tobacco farm in rural Wayne County. For me, summer vacation meant long, hot days in the fields and enough chores to keep even mischievous kids like me and my brother out of trouble.

I must admit that my parents always made arrangements for a summer vacation just as soon as school was out. We would always take an overnight trip to either the beach or to White Lake. It was fun playing in the water. But remember, we were just out of school. We had to wear our shirts to school, so we had not had time to get a summer tan. The most memorable part of our summer vacation was usually severe sun burns and suffering through them the following week.

When we returned from our short vacation, it was time to start chopping corn and getting it ready to lay by. This was the time before chemical weed killers had even been invented. But I don't think it would have mattered. My father would not have used them anyway.

Our farm was small by today's standards. But for young boys like my brother and me, the fields were huge. We would chop one row at the time from one end of the field to the other and then back to where we started. Often my father would be plowing the corn with an old one-row tractor at the same time we chopped. Driving the tractor was adult work; chopping was kid's work.

At this time of the year, it seemed that boys always had at least one toe with a huge sore on the end of it. We never wore shoes during the summer, and in our haste to get to the other end of the field, we would get careless and let the hoe bounce off a hard, clay dirt clod and knock the end off one of our toes. An injury like that would keep today's kids confined to the house for several weeks, but for us, it was just an inconvenience.

After the corn was laid by, it was time to start suckering and topping tobacco. It did not matter that the tobacco plants were taller than we were. The varieties of tobacco that were planted back then suckered from the top and from the bottom. When you were very young, you had to crawl along the ground and pull the bottom suckers off while your mother and father pulled the top suckers and broke the flowers from the top of the plant. After you got a little older, you had your own row all to yourself.

Then right after the 4th of July, it was time to start barning tobacco. You'd get up in the morning before sunrise to take out a barn of tobacco. Work all day to fill the barn back up. If you ever had a day off from barning tobacco, it was back to the field for more suckering.

Once in a while, we would catch up from barning and suckering tobacco. But my father did not believe in kids having idle time to themselves. I guess he knew we would just get into trouble. There was always a garden to plow, grass to mow, barns to clean around, and livestock to feed and clean up after. Our summer vacations were filled with activities.

Times have changed a lot since I was a kid. I now know that all the work I did when I was young did not hurt me. It probably helped me develop a better work ethic and a greater appreciation for an education which allowed me the opportunity to get away from the farm.

If you grew up on a farm, you can relate to what I have just shared with you. You will probably say, "been there, done that." If you did not grow up on a farm, hopefully you have some special summer memories of your own.

In any case, summer is here. Enjoy it. Go to the Farmers Market and visit with real farmers. Chat with them a few minutes and see if their stories will bring back memories.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 04/19/06