Page 26 - Life's Outtakes 8

Different Generations

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It was harvest time, and Dolores struggled to feel
that she was of any value. From the time she was a
young married bride, she had worked beside her
husband in the fields. She had been as proficient at
running a horse team as any man. Later, as times
changed, she learned to work tractors, trucks, and every
other kind of farm equipment.
But things continued to change, and as she grew
older, she found herself being replaced, first by her sons
and daughters, and then by her grandchildren. They felt
she was too old to be working in the fields, and she had
to admit that some of the fancy, modern equipment
seemed strange.
Every time she would try to find a place to work
in the cellars, in the fields, or on the equipment, one of
her grandchildren would come along and say, “It’s
okay, Grandma, I’ll do that.”
Finally she retreated to the farmhouse where her
son lived. It was, in many ways, the command and
control center for the harvest activities. Though it

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