The boy from New York City

One of my favorite summers was when they kid from New York city came for the summer.

Dad went into the unemployment office where people used to sit and wait for the farmers to come hire people for the day. Dad did custom haying and he wanted some extra help to load and haul hay.  Of course everyone wanted to tell him how much experience they had and then this young 18 year old walked up to him and said “Sir I don’t know anything about haying or a farm but if you will give me a chance I will work for room and board and learn”.  Dad was so impressed with his honesty and the fact that he knew he was inexperienced so would work just for a bed and food so her brought him home.  He ended up firing two of the men he brought home because they could not do the job but that city boy, he kept him all summer long until time to go to New York in the fall.

It was hard to imagine that anyone 18 years old could be as native as he was. He grew up on Long Island. His parents had lots of money and he wanted to spend one summer touring the country and seeing how people lived before he started college. He called them collect long distance every night and would tell them of his day and oh what days they were.

The most amazing thing to me was when we got in the pickup to teach him to drive. He did not know what a clutch, a brake or a gas feed were.  He had never in his life been in the front seat of a car. Now how do you get to be 18 and never get in the front seat of a car.  When I am a country girl and he is a city boy with money. He either had a chauffeur, rode the subway, the bus, a taxi, the tram, an airplane. When dad picked him up he rode in the back seat to the farm.  I thought he was so stupid until I realized he had never been in the front seat of a car but I had never had a chauffeur. I had never rode in a taxi, a plane, a tram or a bus if you don’t count a school bus.

I realized there and then no matter what someone else’s life is like they can teach you things and they have different knowledge then you do not better knowledge.

Teaching him to drive,  all I can say is I am glad we had 40 acres of open space for him to learn and laugh, oh goodness we laughed and then we laughed again when he called his parents and told them about his day.  Sometimes he would put me on the phone and I would explain stuff to them.

We killed that old pickup, we ran that pickup in the ditch, we stopped so fast we almost hit the windshield and the poor transmission grinded it’s way through the gears. He never gave up and he learned to drive.

You will hear many stories of the kid from New York in my blog. It was a great summer for a young teenage girl and I think for him as he kept in touch for years after he went home. I so much would love to find him again.