(Farm World is pleased to welcome columnist Roger Pond back after several months of absence due to an illness. What better way to kick off a new year than with a new column from an old friend?)

Dear Roger,
Where you at? We miss your column, and of course your sense of humor! We got a lot of chuckles from your letters. Us Amish down here at Berne, Indiana, used to talk about you!

That humorous and refreshing missive came from an Indiana teacher. He got my attention, and I appreciate his concern. I need to get back to work.

I can’t speak for others, but I’ve had limited experience with religious groups in Indiana and Ohio. That’s where I began teaching Vo-Ag and later worked for the extension service of Ohio State University. These folks told some great stories, as did their friends and neighbors.

Years ago I made a farm visit near New Hope, Ohio, where two of my students lived. (The family was Mennonite, I believe.) The boys were smart and strong and feeding one steer each for the county fair. The family also raised hogs and several kinds of crops.
The boys’ father was parking the combine and going after tools when I stopped to talk with him. I could see that his wife had left for the house.

“How’s the harvest going?” I asked.

“Well, the crops have been good,” he told me, “but Mother was blowing her nose at the same time she could have been watching the gate. So now I’m fixing the front of the combine.”

I also remember a 4-H leader near Plain City, Ohio, who was telling me about a buggy ride with an Amish neighbor. I don’t know what the vehicle rules are now, but horse and buggy rides were common back in the 1960s.

The biggest problem with these buggies was small lights, in addition to car and truck drivers who didn’t watch the road as they should. A person driving 50 mph and overtaking a buggy doing 6 or 8 mph had better know what they are doing.

Local people were pretty good, but folks from out of the area weren’t nearly as careful as they should have been. My 4-H leader friend told about getting into a little buggy with his neighbor and looking out the window behind the seat. The window was rectangular and small, but everything seemed fine as they headed down Rt. 42.

They only had a couple of miles left to go when suddenly, there was a flash of light and a noise like an airplane right behind the buggy. The passenger whirled around, and all he could see was the outline of a bulldog’s nose and eyes on the front of a huge semi. (He could have reached out and petted it if the window hadn’t been closed.)

None of this bothered the buggy’s driver or the horse. The truck slowed to a safe speed and the buggy moseyed on down the road, as they had many times before.

My 4-H friend said, “I was quite happy when I got home, but I’ve decided to walk the next time I’m headed home after dark.”

Readers with questions or comments for Roger Pond may write to him in care of this publication.

December 31, 2008