September 2022 - 29

AG LABOR REVIEW
Small-town virtues, from the ballpark to the classroom
MICHAEL MARSH
President & CEO
National Council of
Agricultural Employers
Michael@ncaeonline.org
Sometimes when my son was a little
boy, he had trouble falling asleep.
You would think that after a long
day of riding a bicycle, practicing
T-ball, doing chores (such as they
were), playing with his friends,
swimming in the pool and enjoying
something delicious grilled on the
barbecue, he'd be worn out. I know
I was. However, even though he was
truly bone-tired, and his head may
have been nodding, he would fight
sleep with his excitement over what
was going to happen tomorrow.
I'm sure you know what that can be
like with your own kids.
Interestingly, the thing I found I
was able to do to get his mind to slow
from its lightning-fast racing over
what was going to come with the
break of the next day's dawn and get
his breathing to deepen so that sleep
would finally come, was something
that if you asked him about it today,
he would probably describe it as akin
to torture.
I found that his restlessness would
abate, and his sleep would nestle him
deeply if I would sing to him ... softly.
Well, maybe just short of torture.
But it worked.
I'd usually start off with a song I
sang to him as I rocked him when
he was an infant that I had made
up, letting him know how special
he is. Then, because I'm not much
of a lyricist and because others do it
so much better, I would gently sing
others' songs to him.
He loves baseball and we'd
sometimes go to the minor league
games in our town.
He always enjoyed singing along
during the seventh inning stretch
that, after 9/11, and before the
playing of " Take Me Out to the Ball
Game, " included a rendition of " God
Bless America, " played over the
loudspeakers often from a recording
by Kate Smith.
So, I would quietly sing " God Bless
America " to the poor child.
After that, I would notice he would
calm, and I could hear him slipping
into a snooze. But because he wasn't
quite there yet I would deliver up the
grand finale! I would gently sing a
song that is today found in hymnals
used in many churches. " America the
Beautiful. "
Perhaps my little boy didn't
appreciate it at the time but my song
choices for him as I was trying to
soothe him into slumber was, in a
fashion, to share with him a sense of
not only how special he is to his dad,
but also how important and special
our nation is too.
I have spent nearly all my life
surrounded by agriculture. I was
blessed to grow up in a part of the
country where it was the engine that
made our little town and its economy
chug along.
Most of the kids I went to school
with and said the Pledge of Allegiance
with every morning as the custodian
raised the flag on its pole were
sons and daughters of farmers and
ranchers.
I don't know if I understood at that
point that I would spend so much of
my career working on their behalf.
The friends and schoolmates I grew
up with are much like the folks in
agriculture I get to work with today.
They have a sense of hard work, they
know how hard a dollar is to make,
they love their families, hold a strong
sense of community, their values are
the light that guides their path, and
they have an abiding faith and pride
in America.
Not bad characteristics to possess.
I guess I can only hope that due in
some small way to the songs that I
would torment my little boy with as
I was trying to help him fall asleep,
I was able to impart to him some of
those small- town virtues I learned
that make me so appreciative of so
many things in life. And perhaps he
will share those virtues with a little
boy or girl of his own one day.
And just maybe, one day, he'll be
able to forgive me for the agony my
singing voice surely caused.
" From sea to shining sea " . FGN
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September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2022
