My dad joins the Turtle Township
4H when he is ten; he chooses
Corn Club as his specialty. Grampa
gives him a bit of land across the
crick. Ron has to plant the corn and
tend it as it grows. He hoes by hand
and moves along the rows on his knees,
pulling suckers and weeding. He
harvests the corn, figures his finances
and yield, and finally shows his ears at
the 4H Fair in Janesville. Daddy says
to Jackie, “I sometimes wished I’d die
right there in the dirt, crawling along in
the hot sun in the middle of those long,
long rows. It should have cured me for
life of ever wanting to grow corn!”
This article appears in July 16-22, 2026.
