The Writer's Pen
The Old Man Card
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It is said that you are as young as you feel. I have yet another birthday coming in a couple months, and I don’t feel young at all. As a matter of fact, if someone were to sneak another 20 candles on my cake, I probably wouldn’t know the difference. Oh, who am I kidding, they don’t bake cakes big enough to hold that many candles!
Recently I spent a couple of days pheasant hunting with a group of guys that come to our area from Ohio every year. A couple guys in our area organize the weeklong hunts, and I tag along when it works out. One of those days was cold and extremely windy, but when time is limited, you dress for it and hunt anyway.
It isn’t easy to move when you wear heavy clothing and boots, and once when I was stepping over some corn stalks, I tripped and landed on my knees in some soft dirt. My overalls were bunched up under me and my boots were tangled in the corn stalks. I couldn’t stand up and I didn’t dare yell for help – it would be too embarrassing! What to do?
I finally rolled over on my back, freed my boots, and stood up using my shotgun to push me upright. The next day I played the old man card and just walked on the high ground.
I hunted just two days and didn’t have much luck. In a party hunt, however, it doesn’t really matter who shoots the birds, just as long as somebody does. Of course, there are bragging rights to consider, and generally the shooter has to clean his own birds. So if you don’t shoot any, you don’t have to clean any. Unfortunately, when I found an easy chair and sat down, my legs started cramping. What a lot of pain! I would have much rather cleaned birds!
After a recent family reunion in Ocheyedan, a few of us were given a tour of the Brockshus Dairy Farm by my brother, Bruce. I had been there before, but had not seen the new robotic milking system in action. It was pretty impressive, but I have to admit, I think most of the programming was way over my head. If I ran the dairy, I would need my grandkids to tell me what to do. My sister, Darlene, and I started talking about our early days when it was our job to wash the cream-separator disks in hot water. Being 5 and 6 years old, we let the water cool a bit before we did our work. I’m sure that lack of sanitation wouldn’t be acceptable to the milk inspectors today. Everything has to be clean and sterile – my how things have changed!
When I was growing up on the farm, we had chickens and pigs in addition to dairy cows. There were all sorts of livestock chores to do. We fed chickens, gathered eggs, fed hogs, bottle-fed baby calves and milked cows twice a day. We always had to clean up after the animals and haul their manure to the field no matter what time of the year it was. When my brother, Glen, and I were old enough to help, our dad bought milk machines so we could milk a few more cows. If the electricity went off, it was back to milking by hand. Nobody enjoyed that, not even the cows. Nobody had heard of robotics or generators in those days, but if they had, maybe I could have gotten out of some chores.
I still run a small lawn and snow removal business during my retirement years. Because I’m getting older, the business is getting smaller, though I’m not sure when I’ll actually quit. I also do some gardening, and get excited when I eat my own fresh vegetables, though often I’m lucky to get enough produce to pay for doing all that weeding and watering. I keep thinking about moving to an apartment or condo, but then I think I would miss working outdoors in the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter. I sleep pretty well at night after working outdoors, even if I do wake up with a few aches and pains.
My wife seems to think I should eat healthier and exercise more. She thinks I would be happier with a few less pounds and a few more muscles. I suppose healthier eating would mean less sweets and more protein, and more exercise would mean squatting and stretching and lifting. Is it worth it, though? Suppose if I get healthy and strong, I could still trip on cornstalks and fall down. I could pick myself up easier, but would it help my shooting ability? Would being healthy and strong help my garden grow better? Would it help me understand robotics? I guess what it comes down to be is lack of motivation. Instead of going to all that work, it would be easier just to shrug my shoulders and play the old man card.
Roger Brockshus and his wife, Rita, live in Spirit Lake. They are mostly retired, but keep active in a variety of activities in their community and church. Roger is a member of the Hartley Writers Group and Hartley Poetry Group.
