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6 THE RURAL VOICE
CHANGING THE IMAGE
OF FARMING
Keith Roulston, a newspaper publisher
and playwright who lives near Blyth,
is the originator and past publisher of
The Rural Voice.
Ever notice on television shows
and in movies how the exciting people
are always in jobs where they wear
nice suits and white collars? If ever
they do show people who work in
factories or are carpenters or
plumbers, they are either incredibly
boring or very unhappy in their work.
Farmers, like carpenters, plumbers
and factory workers, are victims of a
modem society stereotype that implies
those who work with their hands are
semi -literate second-class citizens.
I was thinking how silly this is as I
hurried to finish some last minute
outside work around the house. It was
one of the last Indian summer days of
the year (when you are used to work-
ing to deadline you just can't seem to
get at these jobs until you know winter
is coming fast). I was pointing some
brickwork, and as the late autumn sun
warmth soaked into my back I found
this rather routine task surprisingly
satisfying. Some of the satisfaction
may have come from knowing that
closing up the cracks would keep
money in my pocket that would
otherwise have gone to the fuel
companies. But most of it came from
making hands, usually confined to
pounding a typewriter, accomplish
something that will be around for
years.
As I worked, I looked at the weath-
ered old brick and thought that this
was probably the first time this kind of
repair had been done since the original
bricklayer patiently set the bricks into
place a century ago. Who knows, the
guy may have been bored with his job.
Maybe he daydreamed about getting
another job inside where he wouldn't
bake in the summer sun or freeze in
the cold drizzle of spring and fall,
where he could wear a clean shirt to
work. But whether he liked his job or
not, that guy created a building that
still stands, a monument of his work
100 years later.
Inside the house a beautiful old
banister is evidence of patient skilled
craftsmanship, as are the 15 -inch -high
oak baseboards in the living -room, the
kind you won't find in houses of the
most affluent today.
Somehow, looking at the result of
these nameless workmen made my
own work churning out newspapers
and magazines seem so temporary.
When you write a column, you hope
that somewhere among the 20,000 odd
readers of a magazine such as this,
you might have a lasting effect on
someone. For the most part, you
know your work will be one more
addition to the garbage crisis in a few
days or weeks.
In society's warped viewpoint,
my job would appear to be more
glamorous and maybe more important
than those of bricklayers, carpenters or
even farmers. This misconception
isn't just reflected in movies or on
television either. You can see it in the
schools where manual blue-collar jobs
are looked down upon. A student who
goofs off in class or doesn't do his
homework is likely to be threatened
with the dreaded prospect of ending
up being a farmer or driving a truck.
A student who attends law school or
becomes a stockbroker is more likely
to be considered successful by his
teachers than a student who becomes a
welder or works on the family farm.
In the long run, what do lawyers,
accountants, stockbrokers, and jour-
nalists add to the world in comparison
with carpenters, bricklayers, and
machinists. Those who are most ad-
mired, in financially rewarding jobs,
are really parasites, fed by the blood
of those who do the necessary dirty
jobs considered to be at the bottom of
society's ladder. Somewhere out there
today, in the cold, is a bricklayer
whose work will be around long after
all the lawyers, accountants and stock-
brokers have died and been forgotten.0
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