Iowa: The Farm

When I was a child I would spend a week each summer with my grandparents on their farm in Iowa. The town they live in is very small and mostly populated with retired farmers now.

I have seven aunts and uncles and almost 20 cousins on one side of my family. Many of them lived in Iowa while I was growing up, so during those summer visits I spent very little time alone and a lot of time running through cornfields and riding Grandpa’s moped or lawn mower with my cousins. I also enjoyed the immense freedom afforded to those lucky enough to live in the country.

It wasn’t uncommon to wake up, eat breakfast, then run outside to play with my eleventy-two cousins without a grown-up in sight. We would walk to our  great-grandparents’ house just down the lane and play on the merry-go-round that had been built when my grandpa was a boy. Sometimes we just played on the swing set at the farm where my dad grew up. There was a huge cherry tree hanging over it and we could climb the slide ladder (the slide was long gone) and pick cherries. Once we had a handful of cherries we asked Grandma to bake us a pie.

One year we decided to take the moped out to the field behind the farm house and take turns riding it through one of the fields. At one point I hit a pothole and flipped the moped. I fell off and as I looked up I saw my cousin sailing over my head like Superman. No one was hurt, but the moped was definitely wrecked. My grandpa was annoyed only because we’d have to take the moped to Ames to be fixed, but never said anything. My grandma simply said, “I’m just glad no one was hurt.” They’d raised so many kids over the years my wreck was just a blip. In fact, when I mentioned it about 20 years later, they didn’t even remember it.

When we visited The Farm this summer, not much had changed. Grandpa has a golf cart and two mowers now. The grandkids and great-grandkids ride them all wherever they please. And they still break them and Grandpa fixes them. Grandma and Grandpa don’t mind though. It just means people are still out at the farm and that’s what really matters to them.

I really wish we could be there more too.

Comments

[Antique Mommy]

I am far away from family too and have been for the last 26 years. Now that I have my own child, I long for more of those moments you describe too, for both of us.

[Antique Mommy]

I am far away from family too and have been for the last 26 years. Now that I have my own child, I long for more of those moments you describe too, for both of us.

[Maggie]

For me it was visiting my Grandparents Lake house. We had boats and snowmobiles. And It's my Dad who fixed them when they broke. When my parents moved from Ohio to North Carolina, they sold the lake house my grandparents bought and pruchase on in NC. While the Michigan one was 4 hours away, the NC one is 9 hours. But my kids ride the lawnmower, Dad just got an old rowboat. Next year he plan to put a 10 HP motor on it. Us Grown up kids race around in the speed boat and even the pontoon boat when we make it up. No more snowmobiles. Not needed in NC. Someday maybe we'll get JetSkis.

Great Memories!

[Jenny from Chicago]

Change the Iowa to Indiana and this is my post (no merry-go-round). Love it.

[Shalee]

Sigh. I wish I had eleventy-two cousins to make and share memories. Oh wait, I do have that many - we just never see each other because most of the family thought it wasn't important to make time for each other.

This is exactly the reason why I endure the kids being gone all summer. I happen to think it very important that they know their extended family!

[Jill@Who Could Ask for Anything More]

I grew up in Iowa and moved to Atlanta 11 years ago. I miss Iowa terribly, and my family even more. I'm going back for a visit next week though. Hooray!

[Karen @ Simply A Musing Blog]

Oh...how you make me miss living on a farm! Those were carefree days...and why does it seem that our parents and grandparents were always so much easier-going than we are today? My mom used to react the same way your grandparents did...while I tend to over react. I need to change that about myself!

[green3]

And getting bit by a skunk? I'm just glad it was sivart and not me!

[Jeana]

I wish I could go there too.

[GiBee]

My grandparents had a farm, too. And we would pick concord grapes (they are sooo good), and eggs, and get chased by geese, and tease the steer and horses (but we stayed away from the crazy gray horse called sport), ride ponies, and mopeds, too!

I remember riding a moped with my cousin, and he flipped and I went sailing into an old and thorny rose bush.

Ahhhh -- the memories.

[Daisy]

I like your grandmother's attitude -- as long as no one was hurt, it's all good.

[Suki]

OK, I have to ask: where in Iowa? My mom grew up on a farm outside of Ames in Polk county right by the Story county line. Her parents now live in Ames, but my uncle still runs the farm. I grew up on Long Island and have lived in very non-rural locations my whole life, so it was a huge treat for me to visit a few years ago and ride on the tractors and the 4-wheelers. Thanks for sharing!