Staying hard-nosed

The other day I was visiting with a friend about tractors, and tractor cabs came up. They are really nice, but they aren't for me. Cabs do cost a good deal of money and that's part of why I don't have a cab. But honestly money alone isn't why I choose not to. Cabs make life easier! When it's hot outside you can simply turn the AC on in the cab and it's cool. When it's cold outside, simply turn the heat on in the cab and it's warm. If it's raining, then it's dry. Cabs make life too easy.

When I was growing up, there were cows to milk morning and evening. It didn't matter if it was 20 below or 90 in the shade, the cows had to be milked. If it was snowing or raining or the lightning was cracking, the cows had to be milked. One just toughed it out. If there was a lot of snow on the ground and you had to check on the cattle, you saddled a horse and got it done. Your feet got cold and your hands and your face, but you simply toughed it out.

I can remember Dad going out to get the tractor started to feed the cows when it was way below zero and snow on the ground. Tough to get anything started. Dad didn't have a shop or a building to get one of the C Internationals in, so they sat out in the weather. So dad would do whatever he could to warm up the oil which would help get the tractor started. Dad would come in frozen solid, have a coffee or two, warm up and head back out. Dad was tough. I guess I like that in a man.

Every generation from probably the beginning of time on seems to make life easier for their sons and daughters. Sometimes money is handed down from parents to the children. Sometimes property is handed down. Sometimes job opportunities are made available to the children because of the parents. New inventions come along making life easier. For whatever reason, it seems like each following generation has an easier life than the previous generation.

A simple invention that almost all of us enjoy is central heat and air. Once installed in our homes, all we have to do is set the temp and let the HVAC unit do the rest. It costs money to maintain the unit, but this one invention has made our lives simple and easy. Not that many years ago the only heat that was available was wood stoves or coal stoves or, in my parents' case, cow chips. And honestly when heating with a wood/coal/cow chip stove, you were hot when close to the fire and cold everywhere else. Very seldom were you comfortable. You simply learned to live life being cold most of the winter months.

There is a picture in the history book for Arthur County, Nebraska, that shows a man and his wife standing in front of a canvas wall tent where they spent the first winter in Arthur County. They probably had some kind of stove in the tent, but by golly they got cold. When old timers relied on a wood or coal or cow chip stoves, they were tough. This was before chain saws so you had hand saws and axes. My brother and I tried to chop down an old cottonwood south of Dad's house. It died of old age!

So as society wimps down decade after decade, who is going to raise the banner and toe the line? I think of those who fought and died in the two world wars, Korea, Vietnam and on and on. Not many from this bunch are still with us. We kind of need men and women who are old-school tough to show a new generation how to live without all the bells and whistles and fancy gizmos.

Every now and then I like to take a good Disston hand saw and just see how it feels to saw like our ancestors did. Don't give up all of the old ways!