Gettin an Education

Wed. evening I had to go to a town about 15 miles from our place to pickup a set of plow shears for a friend’s brother. He needed them to be built up and reshaped. My friend’s brother had phoned around and as it turns out this business is about the only place in the country that knows how to do this type of work. Now, I live fairly close to this town so I volunteered my wife's services. The next time she went to town she could drop off the shears. She did and they got done and now were ready to pickup. My instinct was to ask the wife to pick them up. After careful consideration I decided maybe I would do it myself. No use taking advantage of the old gal like that. Besides if she went to pickup the shears supper wouldn't be ready till late. I sure do hope if there are any gals reading this, ya all have a sense of humor. Back to the point I want to try and make. Anyway I call up this ol boy and tell him I want to pickup the shears, what time you open till. Says he is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week, lives above the shop. Good deal, so after work I head for town to pickup the shears. I get to the place and go in, doors open but all the lights are off. I hollers a couple of times and someone hollers back. Then this ol boy comes down out of the ceiling. He is moving pretty slow. He turns on the lights and it was the most beautiful sight ya ever rested your eyes on. An old blacksmith shop. Now if there is one thing I enjoy it is worken with metal. There it was, every old tool and piece of equipment needed to be a turn of the century blacksmith. The ol fella (Paul is his name) told me he had been doing this for 48 years. Now imagine if ya could apprentice with this gent for a year or two. You couldn't buy an education like that if ya paid a million dollars. No college, university or book could come close to supplying you with the knowledge that was in that old fellas head. Now, my young lad was with me and I got to thinkin on the way home if Paul can hold on for 8 more years I will go to him and pay him whatever he wants and put my son with him for a year or two. How could I ever do better than that for my boys education. Unfortunately I don't think Paul will be able to work for many more years (my opinion). While we were talking he also told me there wasn’t much work for a smith anymore. Most just throw away and buy new. He does have a couple of sons who he said are not interested in smithing. When he puts his anvil and hammer away the knowledge that is going to be lost will be criminal.

Anyway back to my point (if there is one), as I said before, while I was driving home I got to thinking about education and how a person gets educated. It has been on my mind allot lately. You see, my oldest daughter will be finished her schooling this year. She has to decide what to do after school. Now I am going to be honest here and tell ya I want more than anything for her to go to university and get a degree. That has been my dream for her whole life. I wanted it bad and have saved a tidy sum of money and done without so I can make it happen. One problem, it is my dream, not hers. She wants to work with horses. She is horse crazy. Don't know why or how it happened, she just is. Anyway, at lunch time on Thursday I sit down with my lunch and pull up some of my favorite blogs. The Northern Farmer blog has a young lad posting. The post hits me like a ton of bricks. The lad is doing an apprenticeship at a farm. I am not sure of all the details but what I can gather he is working for a farmer for a year now and is learning the ropes. It was suppose to end after one year but he is staying on a spell more because he feels he has more to learn. The deal seems kind of informal but is the education this young fella is getting any less than a university/college education. I suspect not. I got the feeling he loves what he is doing (must or he wouldn’t be stayin on for a longer period). In my experience if he loves his work he is going to be darn good at it. Society says to be successful you need a formal education. Is this lad going to be successful? After reading his post and thinking about Paul and his blacksmith shop (suspect Paul didn’t go to college) I wouldn’t bet a plug nickel against it, that’s for sure. I am not sure a formal education is the only way anymore. I am going to have to ponder this a bit. The way I see it, for my daughter to be successful she needs to be happy, not rich. As for society’s idea of an education, well lets just say her old man was never one to worry about following what is expected. I don’t know if anyone will ever read these ramblings but it does help put your thoughts in order when you write things down.

Hear there may be a storm on the way tonight. Coming out of Montana. Shouldn’t be too bad. It’s the ones that come out of Colorado that worry me. Might be driving in the snow tomorrow. Been getting spoiled with the warm weather we have been having here in the North. Making us soft. I can here someone playing Christmas carols on her flute. Must be my oldest daughter, Collamity Jane. Talk to ya all soon.