Traditionally men passed their occupations to their sons.\u00a0 Cobblers raised cobblers and millers raised millers.\u00a0 We picture Jesus working with Joseph in the carpentry shop until he was called to his larger work.<\/p>\n
That happens less today.\u00a0 There is one occupation where the old pattern holds.\u00a0 Most farmers learn farming from their fathers.\u00a0 Most of us work for a time with fathers and some of us with sons.\u00a0 There is something good and natural about that.\u00a0 But the transition from one generation to the next isn\u2019t always smooth.\u00a0 Growing up a couple of decades apart means father and son can have different ideas.\u00a0 Control and decision-making can be tugged on for some time.<\/p>\n
My own father and I had our moments.\u00a0 Looking back, there was probably a time I thought I knew more than I really did.\u00a0 We had a few good arguments.\u00a0 Like arguments in a marriage, there was often more to it than the issue on the surface.<\/p>\n
I saw a cultivator in a field the other day, an increasingly rare sight.\u00a0 It reminded of a story the Kretschmers told.\u00a0 Bart and Katherine Kretschmer farm out south of us near the Cottonwood.\u00a0 They shared this when Pam and I got together with them after Hugo Kretschmer\u2019s funeral a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Hugo was Bart\u2019s dad.\u00a0 Hugo and Irene moved into town after Bart came home to farm with wife Katherine.\u00a0 Hugo drove out to the home place most every day.\u00a0 It was what he knew.\u00a0 Bart might have wanted a little more independence, but he appreciated the help.<\/p>\n
On a typical day, the jobs made themselves known.\u00a0 Pig chores and raising crops each had their duties.\u00a0 For the most part Bart and Hugo worked well together. \u00a0One day, an odd sort of conflict rose up to disturb the peace.\u00a0 This was a wet year back in the 1980s.\u00a0 Bart had banded Lasso herbicide on the corn with the planter.\u00a0 Getting weeds cultivated out between the rows was essential. Steady rains meant the weeds were quite vigorous.<\/p>\n
The Kretschmer\u2019s had an old 4-row cultivator back then with C-shanks and wide sweeps.\u00a0 They also had an 8-row Danish tine.\u00a0 The 4-row was slower, but Bart thought it was needed with the bigger weeds.\u00a0 Hugo thought the 8-row would work fine.\u00a0 That was the last piece of equipment Hugo bought, and he felt a special affinity for it.<\/p>\n
The seemingly minor disagreement grew into an argument.\u00a0 Who knows what all went into the stew that day?\u00a0 The weather, but there were other tensions.\u00a0 This was the eighties; there wasn\u2019t much money in farming.\u00a0 Bart had taught for a few years after college, not sure if he wanted to farm.\u00a0 Then he chose the worst time to go into agriculture.\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t a lot for Bart and Katherine to live on, and Hugo and Irene were trying to figure out how much to help them.<\/p>\n
Katherine was working in the kitchen with the windows open.\u00a0 She had put two-month old Billy down for a nap.\u00a0 She could hear the men outside, especially since they were raising their voices.\u00a0 Small disputes were common, but this one was escalating enough to make Katherine cringe.\u00a0 They were coming up to the house where Bart wanted to get some feed slips.<\/p>\n
As the argument spilled into the house, Katherine gave them a big, \u201cShhhhh! Billy\u2019s sleeping!\u201d\u00a0 Bart and Hugo were standing in the entry way now.\u00a0 Suddenly Bart raised the ante from mere cultivators.\u00a0 \u201cMaybe I should just get out of here and go back to teaching.\u00a0 Then you can cultivate.\u00a0 However.\u00a0 You.\u00a0 Want!\u201d\u00a0 He was retreating outside and slammed the door for emphasis.<\/p>\n
The porch was down a couple steps from the kitchen.\u00a0 Suddenly it was Katherine and Hugo in silence.\u00a0 Hugo had spent forty-some years in that house, but he never knew how to be in there since Bart and Katherine moved in.\u00a0 Slumped, Hugo sat down on the steps.\u00a0 He used to sit in that spot all the time to put on his shoes and talk to Irene.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t sat there since the new occupants.<\/p>\n
Katherine wasn\u2019t sure what to say here.\u00a0 Finally, \u201cHugo, you want some coffee?\u201d\u00a0 He looked up, \u201cSure\u201d and turned his eyes back to the porch.\u00a0 Katherine shuffled around the kitchen as the coffee maker bubbled.\u00a0 A minute or two passed which felt like an hour to Katherine.<\/p>\n
Hugo broke the silence.\u00a0 \u201cYou know, Katherine, I\u2019m right.\u00a0 I\u2019m right about the cultivator.\u00a0 But I\u2019m wrong.\u00a0 I\u2019m wrong this time.\u201d\u00a0 Now his eyes came up.\u00a0 \u201cKatherine, you know it means everything to Irene and me to have you and Bart here.\u00a0 But I miss things.\u00a0 I miss how it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I want Bart to be little again following me around the farm.\u00a0 And I want Irene to be here in the house so I can eat dinner with her and the kids here in the kitchen.\u201d\u00a0 Hugo made sort of an apologetic look.\u00a0 \u201cI suppose that means you\u2019d still be a little girl in Bloomington.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katherine smiled, \u201cThat\u2019s OK.\u00a0 Sometimes I think that wouldn\u2019t be too bad.\u201d The coffee was done.\u00a0 Katherine brought two cups over.\u00a0 Handing one to Hugo, she sat on the step next to him.\u00a0 She never quite knew what to say to her father-in-law; now she thought it best to not say much.<\/p>\n
Hugo cradled the cup in both his hands.\u00a0 \u201cYou know what I miss, Katherine?\u00a0 We made a little ballfield out there west of the machine shed, where we had a pasture.\u00a0 Me and the kids played games after chores that used to last hours.\u00a0 I pitched all the time.\u00a0 I was Warren Spahn.\u00a0 Bart was Rod Carew.\u00a0 That was his favorite player.\u00a0 The girls all wanted to be Roy Smalley cause they thought he was cute.\u00a0 Once in a while Ma came out and played, too.\u00a0 She was Eddie Mathews, cause we used to be Braves fans before the Twins came.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss that.\u00a0 Irene and I was talking the other night about memories like that.\u00a0 She said it was time for you and Bart to make memories on this place.\u00a0 I know that\u2019s the way things are supposed to work.\u00a0 Ever since Bart was little, I wanted him to take things over.\u00a0 I know that, but I get sad sometimes.\u00a0 I remember my dad used to sit on a bucket down in the barn and just stare out the door.\u00a0 Now I know that he was probably sad this way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hugo glanced over at Katherine.\u00a0 She was looking down at the floor, too, a little tear in the corner of one eye.\u00a0 Then she offered, \u201cYou know Hugo, you can play ball with Billy in a few years when he grows up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d\u00a0 Hugo made a crooked grin.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not sure old Warren Spahn\u2019s got too many pitches left in his arm.\u201d\u00a0 He felt a little misty, too.<\/p>\n
Bart chose then to walk back in to the house.\u00a0 Seeing his wife and father sitting on the steps like that, he had a \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d look on his face.<\/p>\n
The good news is that son and father usually let things fall away quickly when they disagreed.\u00a0 Bart wanted to put the argument in the past.\u00a0 There was too much to do to dwell on that.\u00a0 \u201cHey Dad.\u00a0 We need to get sweeps at Miller Sellner.\u00a0 They got sauerkraut at Eddie C\u2019s today.\u00a0 You wanna go?\u00a0 We can call an executive meeting there about the cultivator.\u201d<\/p>\n
He looked at Katherine. \u201cIs that OK, Kath?\u201d\u00a0 On the baby monitor they could hear little Billy stirring.\u00a0 Starting to get up, Katherine said, \u201cSure, you two go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
As she walked out of the kitchen, she turned. \u00a0\u201cBilly and I might go play ball later.\u00a0 He could be the next Rod Carew.\u201d\u00a0 Hugo grinned as Bart gave a \u201cHuh?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Traditionally men passed their occupations to their sons.\u00a0 Cobblers raised cobblers and millers raised millers.\u00a0 We picture Jesus working with Joseph in the carpentry shop until he was called to his larger work. That happens less today.\u00a0 There is one occupation where the old pattern holds.\u00a0 Most farmers learn farming from their fathers.\u00a0 Most of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 20:39:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93764,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93763\/revisions\/93764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}