Sitting in the car waiting for the farmer at lunch time after my morning creating mayhem in our local coffee bar where we all meet for coffee and do make rather a noise (I thought we were quieter than usual this morning); I do a bit of shopping and then walk back to the Mart and sit and wait for the farmer. Two things struck me forcibly as I sat there.
The first of these is that farmers are not known for their sartorial elegance. All shirts are check and mostly bought from the same agricultural merchants, so that the wearers almost look institutionalised. Everyone wears a cap - and the caps are in various states of dilapidation. (my farmer has four caps - one for best and then deteriorating downwards until rock bottom is reached with number four).
And secondly - that you can tell a farmer by his walk. Without exception they drive into the Mart Car Park, usually in four tracks or pick-ups, which are almost always covered in mud from their stock yards (or worse), they step out and walk towards the Auction Ring - no - correction - roll towards the Auction Ring, because all the farmers I saw this morning walked with a rolling gait, caused I suspect by living more or less all year round in wellington boots.
I haven't painted a very attractive picture have I? Who would possibly be keen to marry a farmer after that description? Well I would for one - and I have never for one moment regretted it!
Terry went to our local livestock auction yesterday...you described ours pretty much the same way.
ReplyDeleteLinda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
I don't wear a hat or wellies, but I do drive a truck. Had a sports car when I turned 40, but have driven a truck since I gave the sports car to my daughter. Don't know what I'd do without a truck to haul things in.
ReplyDeleteOh, my goodness! Your farmers must look just like the ones here in our Valley!
ReplyDeleteI love it.
I've never understood some men's obsession with wearing hats, some men seem so welded to their hats that I'm sure that they wear them to bed each night (perhaps Pat can enlighten us on that).
ReplyDeleteMe, despite a lifetime mostly working outside, I've rarely worn one, I find them so uncomfortable.
Very nice article.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
I have a variety of hats. Two broad brimmers one felt and the other is hide, several caps and two berets.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that caps are very useful when driving, especially when bright sunlight pours through the side window because all you have to do is turn the cap and pull the peak down as a sunshield.
To Derek : I used to wear a hat to bed in the winter time and wake up in the morning with it on the floor.
Got the truck and the wellies and even have a few check shirts, but dont wear the cap although I do have one is called a newsboy cap the hat I wear when working is a fleece hat or wooly hat when needed couldnt do with it all year round, my check shirts are par of my smart casual wear they are nice and long and go lovely with leggings and my tweed cap :-)
ReplyDeleteThere are no livestock auction markets anywhere around here anymore - in fact none in Suffolk apart from a once or twice a year sheep one over in the west of the county, but when there is a farm clearance sale or a machinery collective sale the farmers look exactly like your farmers - and they all go to all the sales even if they have no intention of buying.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to the Heron, there were times when I was a teenager in the 1960's when going to bed with frost on the inside of the windows and no CH, that wearing a hat in bed was a tempting thought but I never actually succumbed.
ReplyDeleteWhat a interesting photo you paint with words !
ReplyDeleteIf I lived and worked outside all year I would wear a cap too.
Have a lovely weekend.
cheers, parsnip
Welsh hill farmers all wear the same worn out caps. Usually they are pulled down over one eye in the manner of the classic Irish drunk. Leaning on five barred gates and gazing into the rain while chewing a stalk of mountain grass is a favourite pastime.
ReplyDeleteA mucky cap is better than a mucky head. Cow's droppings tend to splash.
They are the salt of the earth, they don't come much better than a farmer, practical, kind and hardworking and they never complain. My family all wore caps and my father's hung on a peg in the hall for 40 years after he died. Caps keep your head warm when you are working outside from dawn until dusk and in the summer they keep the sun off your head. My mother and I also always wore a hat on the farm although not caps. I still wear a hat everyday, winter or summer. Once you start you cannot stop.
ReplyDeleteSounds sort of like cowboys who are bow-legged from riding their horse.
ReplyDeleteWhat you see is what you get! I like that. No nonsense, and I daresay they scrub up well for a special occasion.
ReplyDeleteHeather sums it up very nicely for me. And it is comforting to know that farmers are the same the country over. Thanks for calling in.
ReplyDeleteThe farmers you describe wearing hats are onto something good; hats are great protection from the sun, and I usually wear one when outside, and always when taking a walk or gardening. So hurray for farmers.
ReplyDeleteAnd you two met in a barn if I recall correctly. Seems fitting.
ReplyDeleteFarming will soon become a popular hipster thing to do, so you'll start seeing a lot of hipster beards and stuff
ReplyDeleteI thought farmers walked the way they do because of 'Auction Ring', which I thought was a bit like 'Farmer's Lung'?
ReplyDeleteThis made me smile. Farmers here wear ball caps (usually with a machinery logo), plaid shirts or denim shirts over which they wear quilted plaid jackets. Terrible ugly things. Then there are jeans and work boots. The quilted plaid jackets are beginning to be worn by many men - still ugly!
ReplyDeleteYour description is perfect. When I briefly lived in Wales they were all like that, and at the local cattle auction car park there were acres upon acres of Land Rovers with Rice trailers.
ReplyDeleteSounds just like my dear old Dad. He and a near neighbour were once waiting in the local doctor's surgery. After some time my father's name was called. "Blast me, Ted, I never recognised you without your cap," exclaimed the neighbour, "always thought you was bald!"
ReplyDelete"An' I never knew it was you, Brian; I always thought you had some hair!"
The farmer says he wears his cap because he is bald and doesn't want the sun on his head. hat's his excuse! Thanks folks - I got many a smile from the above.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I grew up among farmers and they were all like that, from young to old. Now I'm studying at Ag college and am surrounded by them again! Ecologists tend to wear the same uniform too- check shirts and beige trousers with walking boots or wellies :o) Hope you're feeling better x
ReplyDeleteJoel' cap situation is about the same.
ReplyDeleteWhat scared me once was I was walking down a shopping street carrying two bags of shopping (clothes shopping) and I realised I was walking as if in the yard and carrying two heavy buckets of milk on the way to the calves. I had the 'farmer bucket' walk!!!
ReplyDelete