“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”
― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture
In today's great modern society, the idea of living on a farm and maintaining your own food is a bit of a lost art. We live in a country of grocery stores, fast food chains, and processed foods. We use words like "organic" to justify higher prices for food that doesn't have growth hormones used in it's cultivation. The question I always have is what would happen if we were to become unplugged? How would we be able to survive and preserve this great country without the common knowledge of how to grow corn or hunt for meat?
The beginning page in the diary is brief. It is obviously written by Alabama in his youth and there is no indication of a date at all. I suppose dates were not his concern at the time. It is in the writings that we catch a glimpse of Alabama's life that he grew up in. It is a world that most children today would probably not survive in. He does chores, like feeding the chickens, and he hunts for food to survive, not for entertainment. It seems a hard life, but when one knows no different, I suppose then, it's just life.
The writing on the pages seems slow and intentional. It appears that Alabama's mother found his education to be very important. Though there is no indication of a date, I know from later pages that the timeline is before the American civil war. It was not uncommon for grown men to be unable to read at this time, much less write. Ms. Sharpton valued the knowledge in books, and made sure to pass the knowledge found within them to her child.
The Simple Life of a Farm Boy
It is my birthday today. As a gift, my momma gave me this diary. It is a very nice gift and even has my name on it. Momma told me that a diary is a book that you write all of your thoughts you had for the day into. Today while feeding the hens I thought that I saw a coyote. Papa says there are a lot of them around these parts, but that was the first time I had seen one. I hope he doesn't try to get at them chickens. Papa also said that I can go hunting with him in the morning. I have cleaned the muskets. I was allowed to miss most of my chores today because it is my birthday but I still had to do my studies. I went fishing. The fish did not bite so I caught frogs. Momma made me put the frogs back. I kept one. I named him Boingo. He is very jumpy. I am excited about tomorrow.
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