hannah coulter

ok, so i came to the part in this novel by wendell berry where caleb comes home from college and his father nathan starts to make plans for him to take over his share of the farm, and caleb has to tell his father that he is home for a visit but that he will not be staying....he has plans beyond the farm......this conversation is part of the vocal heritage of my father's side of the family......of my own grandfather sitting down with my father on a visit home after graduation but before my parents wedding to discuss the future......and my father having to tell my grandfather than had he purchased the adjoining farm when it came up for sale as my father had suggested, there would have been enough acreage to support two families but as things stood, there simply was not an adequate living for two families on the existing farm....and my father had made other working arrangements......i write this with great regret, now that a child of mine has voiced an interest in the livelihood that used to be a given for both sides of my family....my mother's father gave up all hope of passing on his farm when he fathered two daughters.....he sold off the farm for a housing development......i treasure the copper stencil that my great-grandfather used to paint 'stephan' on each of his crates of produce....the stephan family grew fruits and vegetables on a farm above the canal just south of cleveland, ohio since the civil war days......the family place i visited in germany actually includes several fields now worked by a tenant....which means that as far back as the 1500's our ancestors have worked close to the land..... and so i admit freely that there were tears in my eyes as i listened to this part of the novel....because i knew that this conversation is not singular to the coulters, nor to the crowns, but to far too many dwindling farm families.....