Hometown Boy

this is a weekly column Kevin's Uncle Duane Dailey writes.....I just happened to glance at it in todays The Green Hills Weekly, and sure enough, it contained a family story. ( He is a wise man, but the ag. stuff just bores me....and that is his job!) this story is about my father in law.

In a small town you see volunteers fighting the kitchen fire, while neighbors haul furniture and appliances out the front door, just in case.

I remember a few years ago when home "helping" my brother on the farm. He noticed a black column of smoke where there shouldn't be smoke. He almost had the pickup leaving the farm before I could get in the far door.

Turned out, it was OK. But, someone has to check. Neighbors do that.

Another time when he chased smoke, he got there just as the fire truck and two volunteers arrived. He helped get the cranky pump started. A farmer can fix anything on machinery.

This past summer, something laid my brother low, just as he started haying. He quit in the middle of raking to go lie down.

When coffee-shop news spread, it didn't take long before crews showed up to finish the job. My mother said she'd never seen that many haying rigs in one place. On leaving, a farmer said: I've never been at a neighbor-helping-neighbor when your son wasn't there.

You know you're in a farm community when all help breaks loose.