Christmas

December 26, 2019

Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.

And now for today’s commentary –

Merry Christmas to everyone. I realize that Christmas is not a holiday to celebrate for
some people in our country and many more around the world. We should keep in mind however
that the founders of our nation did celebrate the birth of Christ and religion served as a guiding
light and foundation for our country.

Today I want to tell you a little bit about what it was like on the farm when I was a little
boy growing up. I was 10 years old and my father, grandfather and I had to get up, go out and do
the chores. Milk the cows. We had 8 cows that we milked by hand - morning and night, every
day. You don’t get Sunday off or Christmas day. It was my job to go to the hen house and gather
the eggs. We raised pigs on the farm, but no baby pigs were born in Dec, Jan, or Feb. It was too
cold. We didn’t have a heated barn as we do now. Even baby pigs born in March in those days
needed heat lamps. Many times, we had to bring the newborn babies into our basement of the
house to warm them up.

Anyway, after we got chores done, we would come to the house, open our Christmas gifts
under the tree. I was so excited because Santa had brought to me a 4-10 shot gun. During that
Christmas break from school my grandfather took me hunting rabbits with my new gun. We were
in a field with some blackberry bushes and grass. We saw a rabbit. The rabbit knew it wasn’t safe
for him, and he started to run. I was ready and I took a shot, but I missed. I hunted with my
grandfather other times and was able to get my own rabbit. My dad wanted to show me how to
use the shotgun. His plan was to shoot a pigeon on the fly. We went beside the barn and were
able to get 3 or 4 pigeons to fly out. My dad was ready. Suddenly I called out to him, “don’t shoot
the white one.” Bang – too late. That one shot brought 2 pigeons down, including the white one.
I couldn’t believe my dad could do that.

Back to Christmas day. After opening the presents my cousins, aunt, and uncle would join
my mother, father and sisters for a delicious family dinner – my father opened with his Christmas
prayer.

Until next week, this John Block reporting from Washington, D.C. If you would like to
review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go on-line to
www.johnblockreports.com.