DO you ever think about your legacy? The best legacies are made through relationships with family, friends and community, not material things farms, business or money.
I am not intending to kick the bucket just yet but my father, Lawrie, recently had a birthday. He is 80 (he’s not intending to kick the bucket either).
Eighty is approaching fossil material, he’s always been old to me, I guess that’s why they are called your “old man”.
I am over the hill at 49 to my kids (for the record, I intend to be approaching my prime for the foreseeable future).
Farming is so much easier today than it was. My grandfather, Walter, was killed by a young bull on the farm. My father was young, had limited support, a hatful of cows, no car, no telephone and no money when he started.
Food (mostly canned) was received weekly via drops from his mum or sister, Gillian. The work was physical and constant. Options for days off were limited to never.
I couldn’t do what mum and dad did. Through perseverance, sacrifice and some hardship, they survived and created a happy, stable and loving home. They also lifted a family, our family, out of poverty.
A tiny farm put four boys through university, very satisfying I am sure as dad himself won a scholarship in the 1960s to go to Melbourne University with half his expenses paid, but the family had no money to pay the other half, so farming it was.
Selfishly, I am pleased that happened because if he hadn’t been a farmer, I might have had to get a real job, or even worse, become a consultant.
We were never lectured to as kids or adults, we were shown by example as to how hard you have to work to get ahead, how you should always treat people with respect, irrespective of their station or how they had treated you, we were also taught that if you were unsure how to start a project, dig a hole and work the rest out on the way.
Optimism and gratefulness were the only options provided to us. There was also a fair mix of pot stirring and trouble making. That’s my favourite part to have inherited.
Dad will be embarrassed as anything when someone tells him I’ve written this, but if he chips me, I’ll just say, “Happy Birthday old man, well done to both you and mum for starting a legacy that hopefully has a bit to run and if you don’t like the story”, well even fossils should consider the other point of view.
