The Rural Voice, 1981-04, Page 23KEITH ROULSTON
Remember Farm Forum? You're lucky
We all look back at our childhood and
regret the passing of the "good old
days." One of the things I miss most from
those good old days is the local Farm
Forum.
There was a good Farni Forum
organization on our concession "line"
when 1 was growing up in Kinloss
township north of Lucknow. One night a
week every week during the winter
months. one of the farm houses along our
line would be spruced up to host the Farm
Forum. In those days before the corning
of the snowblower the farmers and their
wives would park their cars along the
road and trudge up snow -clogged lanes.
It took pretty bad weather. as i can recall
now, to cancel a Farm Forum.
For the kids of the house the corning of
the Farm Forum was a great treat. Those
special events that brought adults
together and allowed children with them
(like the corning of the threshing gang)
were always precious times for kids. We
loved to sit and listen to the stories of
times past that seemed to flow out like*
a spring creek when old timers got
together.
There were two aspects to the Farm
Forum meetings, on our concession at
least. The purpose of the meeting, the
excuse for getting together. was educat-
ional. On the appointed night people
would gather around the radio and listen
to the Radio Farm Forum program which
gave the topic for discussion for the
night. 1 don't remember all that much
about the procedure of the radio program
because it was all too elevated for
youngsters but it seems to me the
program gave some elementary informat-
ion on the topic, asked some questions.
then left it to the audience at home to
thrash out the answers. The discussion
more of less flowed for _ half hour
or so then came what for some
(particularly the children of the host
fancily) was the most important part of
the evening, playing cards. That went on
until it was time for lunch.
Both aspects of the old Farni Forum,
the educational and the social, are sorely
missed in rural communities these days I
think. With the organized structure of the
Farm Forum it was an accepted part of
the routine that the neighbourhood would
get together once a week. It built a
close-knit community. That didn't mean
all was love and peace; there were still
bitter disputes over line fences occasio-
ally and arguments about one farmer's
cattle getting into another's grain. but
there was a close relationship among all
the farm families along the concession
that overcame those short-term prob-
lems.
The coming of television i suppose was
what did in that kind of closeness. People
began to stay at hone for their
entertainment. instead of seeing your
neighbour once a week, you maybe didn't
do more than wave from a distance for
months on end. There were often the best
of intensions; someone would say "We
just have to get the neighbours all
together one of these days" but suddenly
that took a major planning process and it
seldom happened.
Television has done many wonderful
things for our lives. It has plugged the
farm family into the whole world. We can
now see how people live in Africa or
China, see how farmers farm in Russia or
Australia, simply by Flicking on the TV
set. Today's farm family is better
educated, less isolated from the rest of
the world, lives closer to the varied
lifestyle of the ubanite than ever before.
It would be foolish to say that television
was a harmful thing, that we would be
better off without it if we didn't have the
television and we had the old Farm
Forum back. Still there has been a loss in
our communities.
Besides the loss of the social life built
by the Farm Forum we have lost the
intellectual life of the rural community.
Television provides us with more infor-
mation about the world than ever before .
We all form opinions based on that
information. But opinions untested are
dangerous opinions. When people get
together in groups such as the old Farni
Forum for discussions they are forced to
give and take with their opinions. They
can make a bald statement but then they
are challenged on it, have to defend it, to
perhaps rethink the process they used in
corning to the opinions but be isolated in
them to the point that we don't have to
think things out clearly. That, in a
country that depends on the wisdom of
the voters, is a dangerous trap.
Loss of grassroots discussion such as
took place in the Farm Forum has also
meant that we have begun leaving to
others the thinking about the solution to
our rural problems. We've become more
passive. Let the politicians do it. Let the
professors do it. Let the farm organ-
ations find the solutions. I'll just sit here
and watch Dallas.
1 think rural life would be a really
exciting thing if we could somehow
sandwich something like Farm Forum
between the kids' hockey practices, the
curling or bowling or the night school
classes one night a week. With a better
educated rural community such discuss-
ions would be more informed, more
reasoned that ever before. Solutions to
rural problems could perhaps be found at
the grassroots level. We could be active
shapers of our communities, not passive
observers.
Last 1 heard there was at least one
Farm Forum still active near Teeswater. 1
think the people there are pretty darned
lucky.
PLETCH
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THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1981 PG. 21