the farmer and the cowman

I am standing at the edge of a sharp, 90 degree turn on southfork road, monroe county illinois. It's about 8:00 am on a sunday morning. If I look to my left, there is a cattle farm: fenced in, burning in early morning sunlight, a plain sign announcing the owner with an almost folk art depiction of a cow.

If I look to my right I see two farm fields bisected by a plain, oiled road. They are unfenced and reveal a recent harvest. A solitary mailbox waits for a monday delivery.

And a famous song by Rodgers & Hammerstein (of all things) pops into my head and stays there the rest of the day.

Our early influences stay with us. I told you earlier about my 1st grade desire to be a cowboy and, a little later, my love of my Uncle Tony's farm near princeton illinois. But I was also raised on the famous broadway musicals. My family sat in the free seats at the Muny in St. Louis and those songs filtered into me and never left.

So here I am on this sunday morning. And accompanying the more normal rural sounds of birds, crickets, a dog barking in the distance: "Cowboys dance with the farmer's daughters, farmers dance with the rancher's gals ! "