It could be at an airport, waiting in line at the grocery store, at the café down on the corner, or just about anywhere. Imagine meeting a complete stranger and getting to know that person in just a few minutes. For some of you, this would be an exciting adventure. For others out there, this sounds like a terrifying experience. Either way, the topic of what you do or what your job is will come up sooner or later.
Over the last ten years or so I’ve had the chance to travel across the United States with my family. Along the way, I always seem to strike up conversations with strangers. For me, it’s an adventure, but for my wife it tends to border on a terrifying experience. The nice thing is, the stranger and I don’t remain as strangers for too long. In the course of conversation, I have noticed that there are questions I have never heard from strangers. Here are a few of the questions I’ve never heard: Are you an accountant? Did you help design the space shuttle? Do you race motorcycles? Are you an actor? Did you travel with the circus? Nope, I haven’t heard one of these.
Hands down, the one question I hear is: “Are you a farmer?” I don’t usually lead off a conversation with the fact that I’m from the farm, and I don’t have a stickie note on my back that says “Farmer.” I don’t even farm full-time. If I had on coveralls with my name stitched on one side and “Bill’s Auto Service” on the other side, you might reasonably guess that I’m a mechanic. If I had on a tool belt with a hammer and tape measure hanging off of it, with a pencil tucked in my hat or behind my ear, a carpenter would be a good guess. But what about the farmer look?
My youngest brother-in-law says it’s the gait. No, not the kind of gate hanging on a fencepost. Gait, as in ‘a particular way of moving on foot,’ according to Webster. I can’t say I’ve given it a lot of thought. George Strait definitely walked like a cowboy in Pure Country, but I think that’s different from how a farmer is supposed to walk. I wear wrangler jeans, but so do cowboys, and nobody has ever asked if I am a cowboy. Maybe it’s because I wear boots, but not the cowboy kind. I do wear a ball cap almost every time I leave the house. Now we might be on to something. My plaid shirts are always tucked in. I remember when western-style plaid shirts were in fashion 20 years ago when I was in college. Shucks, that may be the first and only time I was ahead of the fashion curve. I suppose if you put together all these features, it might add up to ‘farmer’.
At the Preble Soil and Water Conservation District, we work with farmers day in and day out. My job here is not to stereotype what a farmer is supposed to look like. To me, a farmer is more about what you do and who you are on the inside than it will ever be about what you wear. But people still ask if I am a farmer.
Reach BJ Price at 937-456-5159 for more information.
