The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
Greetings ta ever one in western Illinois and all readers of The Quill.
Last week was shore a hot one and now that all of the labor day festivities are over it looks ta cool off some. That will be a welcome relief, if it happens. It is inevitable ta cool off sometime but it can't happen none to soon fer most folk.
Sad ta learn of the passing of Curt Eisenmayer. He was a great man and falls in the category of "a legend". I reckon most folks around these parts know of all that he did fer our communities in Western Illinois and have many fond memories in their association with him in his many different capacities of community support.
Jim McCurdy passed on a short while ago this summer. He was Curt's cohort in Warren County as extension advisor. Curt and Jim made a great team and farmers and country folk of all types were blessed to have "the best of the best", in these two, fer superb community development and support.
It is a rare privilege to have had the opportunity to associate and learn from those Henderson and Warren County fellers in the last days of the old ways of extension service as a great epoch in history, which changed upon both their retirements. Their retirement however was not the end ta their community involvement and improvement.
Dure'n their tenure the methods of rural living changed as well as the people themselves that they served. We are now in an era where appearance and mannerisms no longer distinguish farmers as different from other business men and women. Farmers enterests, fer the most part, are no longer confined within the boundaries of their farming units. Those units have grown in many cases well beyond the early dreams of farmers when Curt and Jim began working for the University of Illinois in extension service.
In the early days there was an old say'n that "anyone can farm", but those days are no more. Today's men and women that farm practice the art and skill of agriculture thanks to the likes of fellers like Curt and Jim.
They have skills in areas of mechanics, veterinary science, chemical engineering, accounting, marketing, risk management, time and resource management, finance, budgeting, grain storage, world markets, and many others. Today's farmers are progeny of the extension service, that Curt and Jim worked so well in. They have high intellectual ability and nurture the capacity for growth as opportunity allows.
Fer the most past, Curt and Jim's accomplishments in further'n the advancements of agriculture, and its change'n needs, have essentially eliminated the old image of a farmer in a tattered straw hat, with a blade of grass in betwixt his jaws, leaning on a barnyard fence, as he drifts his graze across the fields.
There yet remains a few who know what a scythe or a hand operated post-hole digger looks like. Indeed, precious few have laid clay tile by hand, milked cows by hand, know how to adjust and operate a cultivator, put up hay with a hay loader, threshed oats and wheat, ran a "Roof" or "Backoed" weed mower and walked soybeans. The list could go on and on but the point is, Curt and Jim provided the input and incentive drive to progress beyond beyond those older ways,
The old ways have been slowly pushed aside to make room fer something that is called progress. The extension service and the Vo-Ag service were instrumental in advance'n progress. They worked hand in hand in lay'n the foundation fer all that we are and all that we have today.
Without the food needed ta feed an ever expanding world we would have nothing. Modern agriculture provides that food. Seldom does the thought enter anyone's mind as ta who produced the food that fed the people who created the wonders of todays world.
People must have nourishment ta live, ta work, ta plan, ta build, ta sustain a military, etc etc.. How many people realize there would be no cities without the farmer and his product?
Without the farmer and his food and fiber an abrubt halt would come ta the politician and his patriotic speech, the soldiers, sailors and pilots who fight the wars and defend our country, the law enforcement folk who protect our communities and on the list goes,
Back of every achievement of man and woman, and every step of progress we have made through out the history of civilization, stand the farmer and the food he has placed on the table fer others.
Until the shelves are bare, people who spend all their lives in cities, never completely understand foods source and what goes into its making.
Thank you John Curt Eisenmayer 1925 - 2015 fer the long and gracious part you played in help'n this wonderful story of modern agriculture ta happen.Hope ta see ya in church this week.
Wherever ya is, whatever ya be a do'n "BE A GOOD ONE!"
Keep on Smile'n
Catch Ya Later
BARNYARD BRUKE