we all need a wakeup call sometime
greetings all, back from a killer weekend at the pumpkin patch. nothing like a little (sorry, a boatload of) rain to put the damper on things. nothing like dropping an inch or so of wet stuff on farm land to turn the whole place into a mess resembling gumbo.
so here's the wakeup call. i took a load of folks out for a ride through the farm on the hayride. i had a blast, as usual. but one kid on the ride was just beaming. i mean, this kid was a grin from ear to ear, and he was so excited that it was infectious. he asked some really clever questions when we stopped to talk about the farm. he had his head on a swivel, looking at everything and actually SEEING what he was looking at. not completely unusual, but enough so that i remembered that 10 year old. so the rides were over, and i was helping sell pumpkins, when this lady comes up to the counter lugging a pretty nice pumpkin, and the kid was following closely behind. she said that she had a Make a Wish kid with her, and she wasn't sure if she had enough to cover the cost of the pumpkin. i thought that was a weird way to get a discount on pumpkins, but the kid just kind of stood there beaming. the lady said it was this young lad's "final wish" to go on a hayride at our farm, just like the one he had been on in the second grade on a field trip. the kid just nodded, kind of embarassed to be pointed out. the lady's eyes got all watery, and said that he could have had just about any kind of adventure he wanted, but this was the one he chose. i'm not sure if i heard right (kind of got misty eyed myself, and the next 10 minutes of conversation with the outside world had to compete with the conversation i was having in my head), but i got the impression he was flown out from albany, new york just to come to our farm and ride the hay wagon around the farm, and the Paul Newman fondation was footing the bill. needless to say, she had more than enough money for the pumpkin he had chosen, because i wanted that kid to have the pumpkin he chose. she refused when i tried to just give it to her. another general impression, the kid wasn't going to be around much longer.
i had to think about life a little. we take so many things for granted, and it took a really sick little boy to remind me that every moment is special.
so here's the wakeup call. i took a load of folks out for a ride through the farm on the hayride. i had a blast, as usual. but one kid on the ride was just beaming. i mean, this kid was a grin from ear to ear, and he was so excited that it was infectious. he asked some really clever questions when we stopped to talk about the farm. he had his head on a swivel, looking at everything and actually SEEING what he was looking at. not completely unusual, but enough so that i remembered that 10 year old. so the rides were over, and i was helping sell pumpkins, when this lady comes up to the counter lugging a pretty nice pumpkin, and the kid was following closely behind. she said that she had a Make a Wish kid with her, and she wasn't sure if she had enough to cover the cost of the pumpkin. i thought that was a weird way to get a discount on pumpkins, but the kid just kind of stood there beaming. the lady said it was this young lad's "final wish" to go on a hayride at our farm, just like the one he had been on in the second grade on a field trip. the kid just nodded, kind of embarassed to be pointed out. the lady's eyes got all watery, and said that he could have had just about any kind of adventure he wanted, but this was the one he chose. i'm not sure if i heard right (kind of got misty eyed myself, and the next 10 minutes of conversation with the outside world had to compete with the conversation i was having in my head), but i got the impression he was flown out from albany, new york just to come to our farm and ride the hay wagon around the farm, and the Paul Newman fondation was footing the bill. needless to say, she had more than enough money for the pumpkin he had chosen, because i wanted that kid to have the pumpkin he chose. she refused when i tried to just give it to her. another general impression, the kid wasn't going to be around much longer.
i had to think about life a little. we take so many things for granted, and it took a really sick little boy to remind me that every moment is special.
posted by bothenook at 16:38
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