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Welcome to our blog, Menfranco general blog
and this post, the human side of farming
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The human side of farming
Dear readers, this
post is the continuation of our last post, how the farms were run then, so, let
us continue. Now let us look at the human side of farming, so, let me go back
to my own life in the farm, and my experience as a young boy. If we want to
understand that better, one needs to see how the ways of living had been set
up, from the generations before us for their own needs for one reason or
another.
Anyhow, at the time
when I was young in Genzano every family had a dwelling in town, no matter to
which group of people or families one belonged, we all had a home in town even
if it was only a room or a few rooms that we could live-in in the town itself.
But the farmers’ families not only had a home in town like everybody else,
where their women folks elderly people and children lived; but most of the
farmers had also a rustic farm building in the fields, where the farmer would
keep his animals, and with the help of his workers if he had any workers he
would work his fields from there. The farmers’ children especially those that
were to become farmers one day would start working in the farm very early in
life, or as soon as they would finish their compulsory schooling years, that in
those times were just the primary schools.
The compulsory
primary schools in Italy in those times were up to grade five; now, today it
would seem that you could not learn much in five years, but in those times, we
were taught to read and write, we were taught the four main math operations,
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which are the base of just
about everything, we were asked to solve simple problems with them at least
ones a week; we were also taught about our human history, even if it wasn’t in
small details, it covered old history up to the Christian era, middle age
history up to the discovery of America and modern history; it wasn’t a lot, but
it gave us just enough to understand that the world changes and one Era ends
and a new one begins. Anyhow, now let us go back to tell you my farm life
story, because this is the real reason that I am writing this article.
Now, some of the
youths whose families were better off financially would start to help in the
farm only during summer for a year or two, and then as they became older they
would start staying in the farm full time the whole year. But I wasn’t that
lucky and at the time when I left school the first time, I was only 10 years
old and I was going to be 11 years old during that year, when I had to start full
time for the whole year in the farm. At that time young boys were only required
to attend school up to grade 5, and I had already done so, so I went to help in
our family farm full time. Then a few years later the schooling laws changed,
and all the youths had to attend school up to grade 8, or be at least 14 years
old to leave school. So, I and a few other boys of my same age were the last of
the little educated youths. (Now just to make it clear to our readers during my
life, I have read many books and every now and then whenever I have been able
to I have tried to continue to study; and even though I have not been to
college, I have studied and done some courses in building and quantity
surveying. But now let me go back to my farm life story.)
Now you can imagine
how I felt in the farm when I was young; I was perhaps the youngest boy around
for miles so to speak, and I was of that age when young boys like me would
start thinking and wandering about how best one could find a way into society,
because one becomes aware of the need to be social and friendly with people,
otherwise one would become shy and withdrawn just like I did.
Anyhow, this old
way of living in the farms was very hard especially for me, because, since the
great loss of my father when I was 5 years old, my family had lived mourning
him and a life withdrawn from society; so, now that we were all over that
period of grief that any family can have, I felt that somehow, I was a bit more
withdrawn that the other boys of the same age. I needed a break more than
everybody else, but it was not to be, because I was needed to help in the farm,
so, I ended up working in the family farm and I became more isolated than ever,
and that was no good for me socially.
My helping
(working) in the family farm when I was young was no good for me socially,
since there is nothing to learn socially in the farm except farm things, which
in the end they might even be put to good use, but only from those persons that
would be able to practice farming during their whole lifetime.
Farming life of
those days was so hard and boring, especially for me at that particular time of
my life when I was young. So, nowadays when I think about it, it makes me feel
so hurt and unhappy and I ask myself why this had to happen to me, and I feel
so hurt that I would like to tell you a story beginning with, ‘When I was
young’ just to show you how much harder life was then compared with today’s
ways of life.
Now let me add this observation here, while I am editing this article, I
have come to the conclusion that no matter how hard life is for anyone of us,
we should not despair as we could always try to do better, you see, today I am
able to write this article even though I have not been trained to write when I
was young, just because I have not given up and I have tried to improve myself
whenever I could.
Now that I have
explained the ways of life in the farms of those days, mentally I am going over
the farm life of my ancestors, who had lived the same hard life as I did and
they did not lament about it because they did not know better; and then I think
about what it would be the farm life like today compared to old times; you see
I want to compare all those things together, just to have a clear picture of
what is happening to us. By comparing the farm life of these generations, I
have come to the conclusion that I and those youths that as me ended up working
in the farms when we were young, we were the last unlucky ones, because today
even if a young man ends up working in the farms, they start when they are
older and they cannot be as lonely as we were, because today they can have the
company of electronic devices, like the radio and the mobile phones, so one can
always keep in touch with the rest of the world community.
I think that I have
said enough in this post, so, see you in my next post, “my life in the farm”,
where I will tell you a bit more about my farm life. See you there.
---------------------------------------- Menfranco general blog
The human side of farming
IS TO BE CONTINUED
Next time with, my life in the farms
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