The Farmer in the Dell

I use to love that song as a child. What I didn't understand was the "cheese" standing alone. I remember singing the song in kindergarten and holding hands with other classmates in a circle form, with one person starting out as a farmer and then picking a wife, who picked a child, on down as the song progressed to a rat and then the cheese which stood alone.

My father's really good friend from medical school bought a farm in Ohio. We use to visit the farm while growing up (Charleston was only a three hour drive from their home). I can remember getting there as loving the fresh air and also the vast expanse of land. It's not that Charleston doesn't have fresh air, cause it does, but there was something about the rural air that seemed refreshingly clean.

This family didn't live in the typical farmhouse. The home was a modern one (architecturally) with huge glass windows and an "A" frame sort of shape. And the silo which rose in its background looked funny and out of place. But playing around that silo and the pond which lay about 500 feet from their home was the best.

I remember one of the children telling us that if they wanted to keep the animals on their farm, they had to care for them. Their horses stable was cleaned out by them and the cows were fed by them. I remember thinking that it was "hard" labor. But as I grew older, I realized that it helped to build character in my family friends. Each of my childhood friends that helped to sustain that farm grew up into successful adults, independent, responsible and just salt of the earth people. They grew to learn the value of food and had the calluses to prove it. Despite being children of extremely affluent physicians, they grew up unspoiled by materialism.

Looking back, I think I know why the cheese stood alone. It's because the cheese prided itself on being the food that sustained the whole hierarchy!!