A Great Life – Unplugged

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I haven’t lived in Gum Spring for 50 years, but I remember it as if it were only yesterday – with its rolling farmland and wooded countryside. During my infrequent trips through the area today, I have noticed that the old roads, where once we had known the friendly waves and horn toots of nearly everyone who drove by, have become busy lanes on which locals compete with unknown drivers in fast-moving, unfamiliar cars. All the farms in the community but one are gone now; only a half-dozen old farmhouses still stand. Instead, hundreds of new houses and manicured lawns sprawl over the acreage where one’s memory still paints pictures of old barns, standing crops of corn and hay, and meadows dotted with grazing cows. As I look back, I wish they all could experience my boyhood days when farming meant closer family ties and a simpler way of life.

Kenneth S. Woodruff now lives in Whitehall, New York, retired from dairy farming after 40 years. He currently inspects dairy farms for the National Farmers Organization, a group seeking to improve farm prices. The group’s Web site is www.NFO.org.

The McCormick-International Harvester Collection, which is housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society, contains millions of documents and photographs pertaining to the McCormick family, IH and the companies that merged to form it. The tractor images accompanying this story are part of that collection and were originally taken in color. For more information on the Historical Society, visit the Web site, www.WisconsinHistory.org; call (608) 264-6460; or write or visit, 816 State St., Madison, WI 53706-1417.

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