My Wife Left Me, and a Short Story on Being Poor

Boy, things are kind of quite around here this morning. My wife and the boys left at 5 am to go visit kinfolk down in Maryland(you didn't think they LEFT ME like that, did ya). They will be gone untill friday. They got a chance to ride down with Leah's mom, so I said "go and have fun". I'm already bored to tears! When your used to having little ones running all over and doing everything with you, it seems mighty strange when they're gone. Fear not, I won't starve. I like to cook, but I won't have to, one of the perks of a multigenerational farm is no matter how old you get.....mommy will still cook for ya :) So, Leah, John and Noah, if your reading this.....hurry back I miss you already and its only been two hours!!


Heres a neat story I heard a few years back.

There was a well to do rich man you lived in the suburbs with his wife and an only child. The dad was worried that his son didn't undersyand how good they had it. He made a phone call to his realitives who had a rundown little hill farm a few hours away and arranged a visit. He figured the best way to get through to his son was to show him just how poor some folks were. They pulled in the gravel driveway and were greeted by half a dozen hound dogs and a goose. Next, the children and grown folks came out of barns and fields and lined up to say hello. The city boy spent the whole weekend doing chores and playing with farmers 6 kids. The farmers kids were bare foot and had holes in their pants. The barns were in poor repair, the tractor an old rust bucket and the old farm truck had bald tires and a dent in the drivers side door. The more the father looked around, the more sorry he felt for the poor hillbillies. He knew had done the right thing, his son would know what poverty looked like, it now had a face. The weekend was over and the goodbyes were said. They got a few miles down the road and the father looked over at the boy. "Do you know why I brought you out here?", he asked. Kid shakes his head "no". "I wanted you to see just how poor some people are.", he said. The boy said, "You know dad, I never knew just how poor we were." The father, with a shocked look on his face, replies "What do mean?". "Well dad, that pond was really cool, its so much nicer than our pool...I mean its got fish and frogs and crawdads you can catch. We have those street lights so we can see at night, and those folks have a million stars and the moon to light up their yard. And ya, the yard, wow. Ours is so small and they have a hundred acres with rocks and trees. I like our poodle, but those hound dogs were so fun to play with. They swim and hunt and everything. Did you notice, the mother, she dosen't even make the kids wear shoes! They don't have to go to the playground ethier, they have hay forts and trees to climb, did you see that creek...I think it goes on forever. We have to buy our food at the store, those poeple Grow Their Own! Rows and rows of food in the garden, did you see how they could just go out and pick it themselves! They all get to work together Every Day, the father doesen't have a job. Those kids have lots of brother and sisters too, its like having freinds over to play Every Day. I think that lady even made her own bread, dad. Thanks for taking me out there dad, I'll never forget how good those farmers have it." The father didn't say another word. He looked straight ahead and drove back toward home. He was starting to see "just how poor they were".