To the editor:
Jim Massey’s article entitled “Take Extra Safety Precautions During Harvest” (Catholic Herald, September 23, 2010) was timely. I have never lived on a farm, and I don’t claim to be a farmer. However, the article touched me because I grew up in a rural area.
Farm children and adults were my friends, classmates, and neighbors. I vividly recall persons whom our family knew who were in farm accidents. My grandpa had missing fingers from a farm accident. My mother often described the pain he suffered during damp weather.
I did farm work for less than a year. Yet I was involved in farm accidents. As a high school sophomore I was pinned under a tractor for an hour. When I was 11, a farmer let me drive the horses by myself. They ran away, as I helplessly clung to the mower. The farmer caught them and saved me. Later this farmer was gored by a bull. At age six I cut my finger in a corn sheller on grandpa’s farm.
Farm accidents are real. Jim Massey pointed out some wise extra precautions to help to prevent them. Thanks, Jim.
Let us pray for the safety of our farmers who grow and harvest God’s gift of food.
Fr. Don Lange, Sinsinawa