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| (You can see the apartments where the apples used to be in the background. Also, I loved the way the light changed color through the frosty tractor windows.) |
In the 1950s, the area around our university was still mostly alfalfa fields. Over time, homes were built creating a neighborhood. In the last twenty years, the homes have started to give way to college housing. Just last year a small stucco house with an apple orchard was razed for three vinyl boxes full of apartments for students. One old farming family is holding out though. Their father continued to grow alfalfa on this corner lot (about 1/3 acre) until the 1980s just because he could. When he passed, his kids decided they would keep the lot, there was no need to sell it. Real estate prices around the university have steadily risen, but still they kept the lot. They decided they couldn't bear to see the last alfalfa in town turned into student housing. They stopped growing alfalfa in the 1990s, now it just grows weeds, but they disc it and level it every fall, they make sure it doesn't become a garbage dump for inconsiderate folks. This tractor stands there most of the year, a reminder of where our town came from, telling us not to forget the past.
This is also very true for our town, slowly it has shifted from a purely agricultural town to a more modern student town as we also have a university here. It is a sad thing but glad there are reminders of how the town used to be. The old tractor is such a great symbol of the good old days.
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