August 23, 2009 – Humid, hot, rainy. Annie the calf gets a thorough cleaning from Corinna, Katie and Meghan. Annie is going to be shown at the Washington County Fair and Corinna has been helping both girls, sisters, get ready to deal with the many issues of appearance, grooming, and presentation. I am much impressed by the work these kids put into the fair, from wrestling with the animals to cleaning every inch of them. I was a father while living in New Jersey, and most of you know I am not big on invoking past times or the old days.
  But the world my daughter grew up in was centered (not her) much around lacrosse, soccer and lessons of different kinds. When kids weren’t taking lessons, they were online, gaming, or watching TV. Meghan and Katie’s world – it is vanishingly, clearly – is different. Different lessons, different responsibilities, different values. They have to work with these animals, train them to walk and stand, brush and comb their tails and scrub their udders.
  I can’t imagine any of the kids my daughter grew up with doing anything like what I’ve seen Meghan do, and I admire her work, manners and value system.
  I’ve seen how hard Meghan has worked on going to the fair (I just met Katie today) and it has my thinking very deeply about the lessons rural life and work with animals can bring to people.