10,296. RUDIMENTS, pt. 166

RUDMENTS, pt. 166

Making Cars

In the great course of things,

so much has changed around

here. It's totally illogical how

people stay here; the more I

think of it, the worse it seems.

A simply hostile environment

has been built up, one which

bears no validity UNLESS

your first concern is 'consuming.'

Which is what they wanted, and

what they got. A bevy of buyers.

If you take that out of the equation,

there's no real reason to stay here.

-

I've always held fast to myself that

there are basic things I stick with,

and I don't much veer from them.

Long over the years, certain places

have remained attached to me, but

most of them are gone. There was

a time, through the last year of the

70's, and into the mid 80's, that

Cook College (Rutger's adjunct

'farm' campus) was a regular stop.

Having just come out of a real

Pennsylvania farm set-up, and

having learned all those ins and 

outs of raising and tending, and 

milking cows  -  feedlots, pens,

chain-drops, manure-spreaders, 

health and hygiene, milk cooling 

and transportation, etc., etc., I felt 

really adept at watching what 

they did, and was willing to 

listen and even give out advice. 

A regular corral hanger-on 

I became, for a bit. Back then, 

they had about 30 cows, a 

bunch of sows, large pigs, 

and a double of nursery piglets, 

and thirty or so sheep, and 

10 or 15 goats and maybe 

10 horses. It was simple 

stuff, old-style rural NJ farming. 

Basic implements, hand tools, 

rakes and combs. Feeding times 

were all hands-on, the students 

would take care of everything 

(it was, oddly enough, mostly 

always, 99+ percent of the time, 

horsey New Jersey girls enrolled -  

very few males  - and they went 

about their farm chores like country 

bumpkin girl cowpokes; it was fun 

to see). I could never rightly see 

the reason for any of this, but I 

later did realize that once you get 

below Rutgers, the southerly 

expanses of New Jersey are/were 

still very well represented by 

farmlands, crops, old farm-families, 

and all the rest. Don't let the 

rumor-mill fool you, there's 

still a lot of inland NJ agricultural 

quality, for now. It's fading off, 

yes, but it's there. I guess a lot 

of these families sent the eldest 

daughter off to 'farm-school' or 

something, because they always 

seemed happy and joyful about 

their endeavor. Kentucky or 

Tennessee I could understand, 

yes, but this New Jersey aspect 

was exceptional. I'm not avoiding, 

to you, the fact of stating I liked 

the girls, and I'm a lot happier 

they were girls, instead of boy, 

farmers. That whole Brokeback 

Mountain BS, when that later 

hit, it all escaped me. I'm not

 much for sensitivity, but the 

bookstore kids, and the Princeton

bookstore kids too, at that time, 

fit right into whatever the then

societal norm was, breaking perfectly 

into that tune. I always disliked any 

of that mass-emotion, 'we have to

 think this way' crap. By contrast, 

these Cook College girls were 

throw-in-your-face cool. They'd 

have probably ripped that 

Brokeback Mountain guy 

a new butt-hole.

-

All that stuff has changed now. 

Once plastics came into farming, 

I knew it was over. Originally, 

a farm was one place you could 

always go, or be at, where 

you knew everything was 

going to be made of wood : 

implement handles, wheelbarrows, 

shelves, doors, levers and all 

that  -  lain old, well-worth, 

human-factor wood. It aged 

beautifully, It took on a patina 

of use and wore out in ways 

that were patterns of long-time, 

multi-generational, use. Think,
where else can a kid today put his 
hand into a well-worn groove on a 
fence handle or something, and 
say, 'This is where grandpa's 
(or great grandpa's) hand 
used to go too.' It really

was miraculous. Well, back

then, Cook College was like 

that. The grand, cow-barn 

(still standing) was white-washed 

wood. Perfect. The sheds and 

outbuildings, all leaning a 

little, were authentic. And 

then, just as in Pennsylvania, 

plastic began showing up; pails 

and sheds first, small things, 

shovel handles, and even the 

shovels themselves. Containers 

and bins. Once I saw that 

happening I sensed it was 

time for fairyland. It happened 

at Cook too. Places I used 

to walk around began being 

closed-off to 'outsiders.' Open 

latches and things I'd frequent 

began being hatched and locked. 

A few old structures (and trees) 

were taken down and replaced 

by crap, and, over time too, 

the 'activity' of the entire 

place just seemed to lessen 

and get tired. And then 

one day, even though it's 

still there, the college and 

the operation, in a much 

more closed and cautious 

format (I still go there some, 

but never see people now) 

the darn County moved in, 

took over a building or two, 

and had the audacity to set up 

an 'Agriculture Museum,' at 

seven bucks a head, to visit  -  

flower shows, garden stuff, 

occasional speakers, and exhibits 

-  they took all the old stuff, carts,

plows, wagons, etc., and made bogus,

stupid exhibits of them. Man was 

I aghast at what I saw. I nearly 

wanted to put any one of those 

museum jerks into a thrashing 

machine and pick them out 

later as pellets. That museum

crap lasted about 10 years, and 

thankfully now that too is closed up.

Maybe someday, if the county gets 

enough funds, they'll have a 

museum of museums that once 

were. And hopefully it will be 

made out of wood too.