My parents had a 100 acre farm, which is where my sister and I grew up. A 100 acre farm was not nearly large enough to grow enough crops on to support a family and the truth of the matter was that my dad considered it more of a hobby farm. Dad also had a full time job as a game warden, and he likely could have sold off all the farm equipment we had, rented out the farm and made more money. But he loved the farm, which had been in his family for a couple of generations.
After the crops were off in the fall of the year dad would plough up the fields. Then he would disc and rake them. Depending on what had been planted on the field the previous year they were planted with winter wheat, and sometimes they were planted with corn. If the field had corn planted on it most of the time the corn didn’t come off until after the ground was frozen, so that field was ploughed in the early spring and was often planted in alfalfa for hay.
The fall that my sister was 13 my dad taught her to drive the tractor, and by the end of the fall she had done most of the fall ploughing. I was jealous, because dad had told Janice that she had done an excellent job. It was quite a responsibility for a 13 year old. Dad would have the ploughs all hitched to the tractor and he had shown Janice how to start the diesel tractor so that all she really had to do was drive the tractor in a straight line. That fall dad couldn’t compliment Janice enough. Her plough lines were as straight as an arrow, and dad, who was pretty fussy about his ploughed fields, was basking in the compliments he got from the other farmers around us.
I was a year and a half younger than Janice and I was chafing at the bit to be allowed to drive the tractor. But I knew that dad would not let me drive it until I was at least 13 like Janice had been when he taught her to drive. Over the winter I did talk with Janice and I found out her secret for keeping the rows straight while she ploughed. When she started off at the one end of the field she would follow a straight line to the fence posts at the other end of the field. Then for the second row she would follow a line of sight directly between the fence posts, and then the third row would be on the fence post again. This would go on until the field was ploughed. Of course the furrows would grow shorter and shorter as she went around the field, but it didn’t really matter.
The next spring Janice had to plough 2 fields that had been planted in corn. I was watching her, and I noticed that something appeared to be off. For the first half of the field her rows were very wavy, and then once she reached about half way the row would straighten out until she had to turn. The same thing would happen as she went down that fence line, and when she turned again she would be off a bit for the first part of the row. I couldn’t understand what the problem was, and I knew that if I noticed what was going on dad would certainly notice and he would jump all over her.
Janice finished the one field that night. The next night she was going to do the second field. Dad happened to be late enough coming home from work that he didn’t notice what a poor job Janice had done on keeping the rows straight, so nothing was said to Janice,
The next night after school Janice ploughed the second field. This field was even more noticeable, because it was a long and skinny field. Sure enough, the rows were pretty squiggly for even more than half the field before they straightened out.
When dad came home that night he noticed both fields, and Janice got a dressing down. When she went to bed that night she was still crying. The following morning when Janice and I were walking down the lane to catch the school bus she was still pretty upset, but I felt I had to ask her what had happened.
“You did such a great job last fall Jan. What happened?” I asked.
“I couldn’t see the posts at the end of the field Brad. I couldn’t see them until I was about half way down the field.” Janice blubbered as she started crying again.
“I know what is wrong. You need glasses like a girl in my class. She couldn’t see very far either.” I said.
“I don’t want to get glasses. None of the guys will like me, and all the other girls will make fun of me.” Janice said crying even harder.
By the time the bus came Janice had stopped crying and had wiped her tears away. But she had made me promise that I wouldn’t tell our parents that her eyes had gone bad. I was dying to do just that, but now I couldn’t break my promise.
That night when I got home from school dad was already home and was raising quite a cloud of dust with the discs and the harrow. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to erase the evidence of Janice’s bad ploughing job before all the neighbors saw it. I knew he was too late though. We live on a major highway, and I think every car in the county drove past our farm. It would have been a miracle if the lousy ploughing job Janice had done had not been spotted by all the local farmers.
Dad was late coming in from the fields. Janice was in her room doing homework – supposedly. She was likely reading, because Janice always had her nose stuck in a book. I was downstairs watching the television.
“Brad, whats the matter with your sister? Why did she do such a poor job on the fields?’ dad asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe she was just upset about something.” I replied.
I wanted to tell him so badly, but I knew that in doing so I would ruin my relationship with Janice. We actually got along fairly well for a brother and sister. I had an idea though. Janice’s teacher was Mrs. Bradley, and her son Chip was in my grade. I wondered if I were to tell Chip that my sister had bad eyes and was having trouble seeing things in the distance, especially the chalkboard, would Chip tell his mom?
My plan worked like a charm. I told Chip about my sister not being able to see much off in the distance anymore on a Tuesday. I also told her that she didn’t want our parents to find out and I figured that would send him running to his mom. By Friday Mrs. Bradley had sent a note home to our parents suggesting that Janice should have an eye exam. The following Monday mom made an eye appointment for both of us and by the next Tuesday Janice had her glasses. I didn’t need glasses and the doctor told me I had excellent eyesight.
Janice had a prescription for her first glasses of -2.50D. She liked the good vision that these glasses gave her, and as a result she wore her glasses pretty much all the time.After she got her glasses dad realized that the reason Janice did such a poor job on the ploughing was that she couldn’t see the fixed reference points well enough to use them so he gave her another chance at the fall ploughing. I wasn’t 13 yet, but I had hoped dad would let me plough that fall.
I guess I messed up my chances to do the ploughing when I helped Janice get glasses.
Specs4ever Sept 2014
https://vision-and-spex.com/my-sister-needed-glasses-t510.html