Deep thinking

We tend to view our life experiences as "normal" when we are young as we have a very small frame of reference.  My sister and I and most of the kids I knew at the time had chores to do every day.  This started before being old enough to enter First Grade (No Kindergarten available).  By the time I was seven I was driving a small farm tractor as needed.  At eight, I was running tractors doing farming most days when I was available.  Started using a grain shovel and hay hook at about that same age.  Trust me, I understood what hard work was.

Any kind of athletic practice was a welcome reprieve from harder work.  My first job out of high school was as a turkey hanger.  This involved bending over at least 5000 times in an eight-hour day to grab a dressed turkey by one wing to swing it up out of a tub of ice and ice water to hang on a J-hook coming by on a conveyor system with the hook going between the leg stubs that were tucked up into the tail area.  Back-breaking work for most people.  A stroll in the park compared to farm work in the Summer heat.

Monday I dug a hole in the bottom of a highway ditch that was 30 inches in diameter and 30 inches deep hoping to pickup the signal of a 1/2" bar that was in place prior to road construction in 1959.  The bar was set above the 6-inch by 6-inch stone that had been found in 1957.  The finish highway elevation was shown to be 3.5 feet higher than normal ground surface and we found it to be 3 feet higher after all these years.  No bar, no stone.  No replacement monument ever set by the DOT in over 60 years.

Tuesday I went back and filled in that hole.

Things I learned in those early years still drives me today.  People see me and ask if I have retired yet.  My standard answer is that they will get to attend my funeral about three days after I stop working.

On the subject of football, while I see the value in the the discipline, teamwork and training, I just have a hard time with see young men routinely getting their bell rung and the long term affects that might have with their brains down the road. I’ve had several people in my life that played the sport aggressively through their youth that fairly early in their golden years began showing signs of cognitive decline and can’t help wondering if there is some connection. 

I was not allowed to play football as I had far too much farm work to handle during that time of the year.  Basketball and track were no problem.  Basketball has no pads to soften the blows.  An elbow to the mouth plays heck with your dental history for the rest of your life.  Oldest daughter was very active in sports and her worst injury, by far, happened on the basketball court.