Children of the Corn

With all the formerly lush green grass that felt so good on bare feet and is now crunchy and turning to dust, I wondered to my friend just how long it had been since we had rain. She checked and came back with this interesting fact—this is the driest June in Indiana since 1988.

Ah, I remember the summer of ‘88. It was the summer before I got my very first ‘real’ job, and the summer when the drought and heat killed crops and all the grass. The dry earth cracked wide open, and we wondered if it would ever rain again.

It must have, because the next July I got up well before 6am to be at the bus stop with a group of kids who were also embarking on a money-making venture. We rode the school bus to the cornfield where we’d spend the majority of our days for the next 3 weeks detasseling corn.

My parents arranged the job for me, saying it would help me build character and a good work ethic.

Detasseling corn, for the uninitiated, is pulling tassels out of all of the ‘female’ rows of corn to allow for pollination by the ‘male’ rows, so that these 2 species create a hybrid. It is hard, hard work and the quitting rate is high. We called ourselves ‘children of the corn’ and knew that our work force ranging in age from 14-18 were the only ones who would sign up for this gig.

My oldest daughter is nearly the age I was when I started detasseling. Would I want her or any of my kids to detassel? Hmm. Looking back I can see the ‘character building’ and the ‘good work ethic’ it helped me cultivate, but there are lots of other opportunities for that and not much opportunity to detassel around Noblesville anyway.

I guess I’ll have to settle for regaling the kids with stories of me working in the wet and muddy fields, blistered, sunburned, sweaty and sore. And find other opportunities for them to build character, outside of the cornfield.

The scoop on poop—manure trucked to Indiana from Ohio

Last month my husband and I went to a swanky restaurant for a Christmas company party/dinner. I only somewhat jokingly wondered out loud where the vegetarian entrée options were as I contemplated whether to order the New York Strip or the filet mignon. I realize that’s an ironic thought since we were in a steakhouse, but I hadn’t had steak in years. I got the filet.


It was good. Delicious really, but I did wonder where the meat came from. I would love for it to be from a sustainably run farm, grass fed and finished, but I doubt that’s the case.

I rarely eat meat for health and environmental reasons, and recently in NUVO I read about one of the issues that the demand for meat, without a responsible way to deal with the waste that comes with it, produces.

Indiana, being the agricultural state that it is, is home to a lot of farms. It’s kind of easy to forget this, being in suburbia, but CAFO’s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) are common in rural areas. CAFO’s are industrial farms defined by having more than 1000 cattle, 2500 hogs or 100,000 chickens.

So the news I read in NUVO was this—the largest inland lake in Ohio, Grand Lake St. Marys, has been severely polluted by manure runoff. The so-called solution from the Buckeye state? Well, import it to Indiana! Unfortunately, our state, not really known for it’s environmental responsibility or prowess, has absolutely no authority to regulate or stop manure importing.

Where does all this, um, manure go? I have no idea. It’s like the old adage, ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ We may not see these CAFO’s, but they exist. So does the waste they produce, and it’s gotta go somewhere.

We really should be invested in protecting our waterways from foul manure runoff. We should care about the health (or lack of) of the animals held captive in these industrial farms. We should lobby against CAFO’s and the trucking in of manure from other states. We should limit our meat consumption for our own health and for environmental reasons.

The Hoosier Environmental Council has some great resources here: www.hecweb.org/issues/sustainable-food-agriculture/resources, and there’s also an Indy Winter Farmer’s Market (www.indywinterfm.org) where you can buy local, sustainable meat.

Roots: historical novels with Indiana ties

If you’re an avid reader, maybe you too have a book list—a list of books that you have read and loved, as well as books you want to read. I have plenty of books on my ‘to read’ to keep me occupied for probably a couple years, but I have recently added a couple more. It’s all the better if they combine and intertwine factual history with fiction, leaving the reader with a greater sense of place, awareness of and appreciation for the events, places and players in history. Here is a list of three acclaimed novels: Stardust by Noblesville author Kurt Meyer, The Massacre at Fall Creek by Jessamyn West, and Follow the River by Indiana resident James Alexander Thom.

Stardust is set right here in Noblesville and is a compelling story of love and loss. Once you read this book, you will be drawn to walking around ‘Old Town’ Noblesville like never before—compelled to seek out homes and commercial buildings featured in the book, as well as noticing (perhaps for the first time) the magnificent buildings that Noblesville once had that were torn down in the name of ‘progress.’

The Massacre at Fall Creek takes place around Pendleton in 1824 and is the account of the capture, trial and execution of five white men for the murder of nine peaceful Native Americans. There is a marker denoting the spot near where the massacre occurred on State Road 38 E, near Markleville (east of Pendleton).

Follow the River depicts the kidnapping of Mary Ingles from a Virginia settlement by Shawnee Indians in 1755 and details her escape from captivity and one thousand mile journey to return to her people.

I haven’t read the last two books yet but they’re next. All three books are available at the library.