11 June

Jaiboy On The John Deere

by Jon Katz
Jaiboy On The John Deere

Yesterday, I put up a photo of Jaiboy, one of Ed and Carol Gulley’s grandchildren (they have four children, not three as I mentioned yesterday), he was sitting in Ed’s lap. Today, when I went out to visit Ed, I asked him who was riding that big tractor across from the farmhouse baling huge round bales with such precision.

Oh, he said, that’s Jaiboy, he loves to ride the tractors. “He’s a farm kid, through and through.” So I went out into the hayfield and there was Jaiboy in his new mohawk cut, driving the tractor around as if it were a lawn mower. He sure knew what he was doing.

Farm kids are different from other kids. I think Jaiboy is thirteen. Farming is in his blood. And I couldn’t help thinking of where most kids in America were Monday afternoon. They were perhaps on Instagram or a smartphone or some other screen.

Jaiboy was out in the hot sun for hours, driving that big machine, maneuvering it as the round bales popped out of the back like eggs in a chicken house.

I think farming is Jaiboy’s dream, I think Jaiboy will pursue his dream and catch it.

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