No doubt city folks would not understand our rural humor and vice versa, but I hope many of you will get a chuckle out of my story.
My dad had four older brothers and I ended up being the last of the cousins – the baby of the baby, if you will. There’s kind of a connection between me and the oldest son of the oldest brother or between the oldest cousin, Stan, and youngest cousin, me. He comes to our side of the farm a lot to see about his hay, work on equipment or just to check in with my dad and see what’s happening.
He also enjoys a good practical joke every once in a while. One day last spring, I was driving out of the driveway to take my girls to school when we passed by my parents small garden. A bright yellow color among the green plants caught my eye.
“Look at that girls; look at the pretty sunflower,” I said. “It’s not very tall; it must be a dwarf variety, but it sure is pretty.”
On the return trip, I pondered the pretty flower, “My parents have never grown sunflowers. I wonder why they decided to do that?”
Quite honestly, it took a few more days of seeing the pretty sunflower that never changed, never grew and never faded before I realized I had been had – Stan had stuck a fake, silk sunflower in the garden, and I fell for it, hook, line and sinker! Funny.
Eventually, the garden faded and by the end of summer my dad had mowed over the garden spot to make it look a little nicer. One morning, I was taking my girls to school as usual when a white something caught my eye from the freshly mowed garden spot. I busted out laughing. Standing straight and tall was a perfectly defoliated cotton plant loaded with pretty white cotton bolls. This time I was not fooled, but the sheer absurdity of it made me laugh and laugh.
As we roll into 2014 wondering what prices will be and if we will ever get a new Farm Bill, take the time to laugh or at least plant random silk sunflowers and see who you can fool!
