I’m a child of the 80s, and I think the best part of the era was the music. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to roll down the window, rest your arm along the edge, let your hair down and cruise. It reminds me of summer evenings, fishing along the river and cutting up my feet from running barefoot in the grass.

As I sat down to talk to Grandpa this week to continue to try to capture what it was “really like” to be a farmer 80 years ago, an REO Speedwagon song kept replaying in my head:

So, if you’re tired of the same old story, oh, baby, turn some pages
I will be here when you are ready to roll with the changes, baby
Roll with the changes
Oh, you know, you know, you know you got to…

Keep on rollin’
Keep on rollin’
Roll with the changes

At a recent appointment, the doctor said, “You don’t look 90.” His response: “What is 90 supposed to look like?” I believe his youthful persona is partly due to rolling with the changes and not fretting about things he couldn’t control. He accepted change as it happened, embraced the opportunities and kept on rollin’.

So this week, listen as grandpa talks more about what it was like working on the farm in the 20s and 30s. I’ll summarize here: IT WAS HARD WORK.

Until we walk again …