Life With an Ag. Teacher

The first time I met Doug's parents, they teased me about being a "City Girl." I laughed because . . . I came from the "city" of Spartanburg.  It hardly counts.  However . . . compared to where they used to live, it was the city.  They lived way out in the country.  

When I first started teaching, 17 years ago, the school I'm at- was a country school.  That was 17 years, and a LOT of suburban development later.  There was nothing but fields around my high school.  Now?  Now.  Now there are: shopping centers, grocery stores, movie theaters, a bazillion neighborhoods.  Traffic can be ridiculous at times.  

Doug is an agriculture teacher.  His content has changed a little bit over the years.  He still teaches horticulture, but does a lot more shop stuff now.  Students "down there" in Ag World learn how to weld, and do wood working, a little bit of electrical, and maybe some plumbing (they used to- do they still?  I don't know.  A good wife, might.  I won't lie, when people are ignorant to how agriculture impacts their life, it makes me irrationally annoyed.  So, while I don't know his content 100%, I support ag. (plus- there's that whole, I like to eat thing, I have going on.)

He still has the same kind of kid, that he did when this area was more rural, for the most part.  They're a little bit country.  They drive trucks, and their grandparents have farm animals and they probably used to help grandma in the garden (when they were younger and around more), and they might still enjoy home grown canned- by Mawmaw- veggies at dinner.  

Every year around this time, all of the high schools in the school district host Ag Day for every single 3rd grader in the county.  It's intended to teach kids- where their food comes from and how agriculture continues to impact their lives, no matter how developed the county becomes (Union County is still very agricultural growing: wheat, corn, soybeans, strawberries, cattle, chickens, plus other stuff, I probably don't know about).   

To make Ag Day more interesting, there are always animals. The animals always make for a good story.  Like the year, the donkey was very obviously (and impressively) enamored with the horse.  Go donkey!  And then another year the goats got out and took off down the road.  They got about 2 miles before they all got caught.  The baby chicks are always a popular station.  They're so cute and funny.  

I'm pretty sure this year will go down in history, as one of the more memorable Ag Days.  See, a calf got loose.  Lord, y'all that calf has created quite a raucous.  She took off across the street, hung out in the McDonals parking lot for a bit (funny enough- she is a Black Angus. I guess they really are 100% angus beef burgers).  Then she took off towards the moo-vie theater.  (I'm sorry for all these cow jokes- but the locations are true, and what kind of dork would I be if I didn't take advantage of an opportunity for a bad pun?!) and then . . . she kept on going into some woods and hasn't been obtained 12 hours later!!!!!  There have been sightings of her in the woods, but she's a fast moo-ver (and maybe a little nervous about the proximity of the McDonalds).

After school, I had to go and get Alexa and bring her over to see the horse that was at school for Ag Day.  The horse belongs to a friend, and Alexa has gotten to ride Batman (the horse) before.  Plus, she wanted to see and hold the baby chicks one more time.  Then I went and got Andrew and he had to go and see Dad. He wanted to hear more about the calf situation.  While I was at the grocery store, there was a calf sighting so the boys took off down the road to go see if they could catch her!  About 2 hours later, I got called to go pick Andrew up. No luck catching that wiley calf yet.  When I get over to the area where Doug is at, there's about 10 guys- ranging in age from high school to grandpa lined up at the tree line of a wooded area, trying to get the cow out.  

We've been laughing all day about our friends over in those neighborhoods with 1/4 acre of  lot- if that- and what they would say if they saw a calf coming down their street.  I would LOVE to have a field in the back of my house with a bunch of cows in it.  I think the low of a cow coming through my windows would be a heavenly sound.  I doubt I would have ever said that, in my life before my Ag Teacher.