Take Me Home, Country Roads

On a warm, lazy, summer’s day, I decided to go for a drive. I wasn’t headed anywhere in particular, just somewhere.

Turning off the highway, I slowly drove along a country road. No houses were in sight. The air was filled with the sounds of a light breeze, birds chirping away, and in the distance the murmuring of cows calling to their calves. Overhead, fat, white, popcorn clouds slowly drifted along.

Pulling off to the side of the road now and then, my gaze wandered from a pile of rocks that had been cleared to allow room for the alfalfa to grow to a tree to the sight of a hawk slowly circling an area where he had spotted some prey.

Oh, what tales the land could tell of those who had walked upon it, loved it, coaxed it to produce alfalfa and wheat and barley, I thought.

And then I spotted several pieces of very old machinery, quietly returning to the land.

Who had the machines belonged to? What had been their job? What dreams had they helped bring to reality?

In my mind’s eye I could see a farmer operating the machines day after day, preparing his land for the crops he would seed, nurture, care for, and bring to harvest. He didn’t work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. His day was from break of day to past sunset. Providing for his family spurred him on through the long and sometimes difficult hours. And always in his mind was giving his children to the chance to pursue their dreams.

How many hours and days and years had that old machinery given its best to the man who operated them? How many dreams did it help fulfill?

I wondered how long they’d sat there through rain and snow and heat and cold, slowly rusting away. Their usefulness had been outlived. Newer and bigger machinery had taken their place. Yet the service they’d given the farmer over the years could not just be tossed aside. They deserved to end their time on the land they had so faithfully worked.

Now they had come to their final resting place. And as the farmer passed by them each day, did his memories of their time spent together bring a smile and maybe a nod of his head in their direction?