Promoting the "best life ever"

by Karen Emilson

This is the third year that Janice Lawrence and I have worked the MCPA display together during “The Amazing Ag Adventure.”
It’s a fun, interesting and exhausting three days as early and middle years school children from the urban areas, cycle through one after another and we deliver a 10 minute presentation.

Every year there are a few students and/or teachers who are memorable, usually for negative reasons. But this year the child I remember best an enthusiastic, nine year-old boy with curly blonde hair. He was sincerely interested and had so many questions that partway through our spiel, I took him aside for a one-on-one while Janice led the rest of the group through our regular presentation.

Our little friend wanted to know if we lived at the Ex grounds. He came through the display during “Touch the Farm” and remembered us. When I thought about it, I remembered him, too.

He asked if we lived in the upstairs of the barn, saying he thought that would be “pretty cool.” And he wanted to know all about it - if the barn had lights, if there was hay and straw and how many animals it held. I told him about the equipment shed and the machinery we needed to make hay and feed the cows.

When the horn blew he was reluctant to leave. As he stood looking at the cow, he said to me:

“I would love to live with the cows. You’re really lucky. It sounds like the best life ever.”