Reactions to harvest break

15 years ago

Don’t rob young people of our harvest heritage

To the editor:
    This is bigger than bringing in the season’s crop. This is bigger than a break from school. Harvest Break is an essential part of our Aroostook County heritage. When our young people graduate high school and enter college, join the workforce or move away, how will the notorious Aroostook County work ethic be noted of them? 

    We often forget how blessed we are to live in an area of such beauty. All around us are open fields, rolling hills and big sky. Northern Maine boasts one of the most brilliant autumn scenes in the country. Whether we realize it or not, this area was built by farmers. It wasn’t just a few men who got together to do the job … it was families … it was communities. For each of us who are privileged enough to call “The County” home, we first need to bow our head in humble thanksgiving. Then we must look up over these rolling hills, straighten our shoulders and live out this County Pride.
    How can this generation and those who follow lay claim to this rich heritage of the land? They can “learn” about it in a classroom … sitting at a desk. Or they can hear their heritage in the cry of migrating geese muffled by the rumble of a tractor, feel it in the softness of the dark, rich earth as they walk the fields. They can taste it in warm homemade cookies baked just for the harvest help by a farmer’s wife. Young people can smell their sweet heritage in the earthy aroma of a filled potato house and see it in the weary, yet completely satisfied faces of the harvest crew.
    Do you want to rob your children of this joy? Do you want to take away their opportunity to embrace the work ethic that has made northern Maine famous? Do you want to rip apart the blessed pride of working this great land, of being part of something bigger than themselves?
    These days our culture, yes even in Aroostook, is obsessed with media and technology … ipods and Facebook. Harvest Break is one last piece of our young peoples’ lives that truly is real and raw. I am 21 years old. I’ve worked the harvest for as long as I’ve been old enough. I remember long, tough days … days so long they seemed to roll into the next. I know what it is to be covered in dirt. I know what it is to dream potatoes. I know what it is to hear the rumble of the harvester ringing in my ears long after the day is done. Yet I wouldn’t trade one of those long days working beside my father, brothers, family and friends. I wouldn’t trade in one evening of collapsing exhausted on my bed, weary back and tired fingers. For in the days of Harvest Break I learned who I was, appreciated the place I come from and shared in the sweet satisfaction of taking part in an effort that is bigger than me.
    Please don’t take away this blessing from your children. Please don’t steal from them the opportunity to embrace their heritage and stand proud to call Aroostook County, Maine home.

Ingrid (Braley) Sutherland
Mapleton