Scott City Musings: Life simplified

When I was a kid, I never really got interested in gardening, but I did enjoy watering the garden. Dad had put down a well by the barn and had put an electric pump jack on the well. So all one needed to do was turn on the pump jack and it would pump water into an 8- or 10-foot stock tank which ran over into a 12- or 14-foot stock tank. When the bigger tank was full, it would run into the garden. Mick and I had to make sure the water made it to the row Dad wanted watered. We could play in the water all we wanted as long as it watered the garden. Dad didn’t mail order seed. I never saw him reading about how to garden. He never searched the internet. Back then, there wasn’t an internet. Dad picked the seed up in town. I was not even sure which town. Gardening was simple.

I wonder if we’ve made it too complicated and taken some of the enjoyment out of gardening. Dad would fill the manure spreader full of manure and spread it all over the garden. He’d put the single bottom plow on the tractor and plow the garden and then disk it. He was ready to plant.

I get a soil test and find out what my garden is lacking and apply the lime and fertilizer, as needed. I disk my garden and then till it with my Troy Horse tiller. Then I plant.

But I’ve read through garden catalogs about the best varieties as to what they produce and read countless articles on gardening and new techniques and growing methods. I order my seed from suppliers around the country and figure out when to plant. Dad would simply get out the Farmer’s Almanac and right there in black and white was when to plant. Dad’s garden, which was done in a simple way, produced every bit as good as mine and maybe even better.

Dad had an old Chevy pickup with a six-cylinder four-speed with granny low and step sides. It didn’t go 100 mph and wasn’t the smoothest pickup on the road, but most guys could change the oil and get it running if it quit. It didn’t have any computers in it or telephones or the internet. It did have a cigarette lighter and an ashtray. No air conditioner but it did have the little wing windows you could suck some air into the cab with. I really wish I had that old pickup now just like it was back in the 1960s. I’d take that old Chevy pickup over any of the new Fords or Dodges or Chevys. I like the simple.

In my pocket, I carry a Buck two-blade pocket knife. The new ones don’t have the metal like the old ones or the pins that hold the blades in. Marge and I cook on Griswold cast iron skillets with most of them being made back in the early 1900s. There’s a lot of bragging about how good the new ones are and how expensive, but I’ll bet in 100 years you can still use ours and those modern ones will be in some landfill or melted down. I sit on an old wooden folding chair every time I roast coffee. I believe it came out of the old Lodgepole Wesleyan Methodist Church so it was made before I was born in 1950. Simple design but it lasts.

Do you suppose if we kind of unplugged from the rat race we are living in we’d be happier and healthier? Do we have to have our cellphones with us 24 hours a day? If we missed the daily news now and then, who or what would that affect? Would it make a difference if we left the TV and radio off as we have our first cup of coffee in the morning? What about no noise or technology for a period before bedtime? A time to chill down!

Let’s spend some quality quiet time just enjoying the moment and listening.

Just me,

Rennie

Phillips began life as a cowboy, then husband and father, carpenter, a minister, gardener and writer. He may be reached at phillipsrb@hotmail.com.