Thursday, May 29, 2025
Time: 5:16 PM
Song: Catch the Wind
Artist: Donovan
Mode of Consumption: Listening
to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/505Pd7CPHoewIE3Io2EpWd?si=440e9bf213d54f54
Just before COVID, Jodi and I decided we should find things to get involved with. I started going to Write On, and she volunteered once a month at a special needs facility. The other thing we did was volunteer to help with projects at the Carroll County fairgrounds.
Both of us had attended the fair since our youth, and we have participated yearly as exhibitors. This was a way for us to contribute.
So, on Thursdays in the summer leading up to the fair in the first week of August, we spend an hour or two at the fairgrounds performing various manual labor tasks. Our desire is to show up and help. We don’t really want any more responsibility than that.
One of our yearly tasks is to rake leaves out of the livestock buildings. Each building is open at the end and along the sides, and the grounds have dozens of old, tall trees.
Tonight, we cleaned the front end of the poultry building. The cages used for the fair are always folded and lined along the wall. A perfect place for piles of blowing leaves to gather.
I wonder who the first person was to decide that they needed to remove dead leaves out of the way? Was it an early planter, wanting to expose the soil below before planting? Was it a caveman, looking to start a fire, but not wanting to smoke his family out?
They probably started using their feet and hands, clawing away the dried remains. How many years did it take before they found an old stick that could move more away at quicker pace? Sometime down the road, steel was forged, and a blacksmith had the bright idea for a rake.
Now we do it every
year, and probably will until our bodies give up, or somebody plops other
duties on us.
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