[Previous Rural Farmgirl, April 2009 – May 2010]
There are seven wonders in the world that have earned the right to be called “Wonders,” with a capital “w.” They are the Big Ben clock tower, the Eiffel Tower, the Gateway Arch, the Aswan Dam, The Hoover Dam, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, and the PETRONAS Twin Towers.
Then there are those wonderful life-changing wonders, like the birth of a baby, a rainbow, and seeing life through the eyes of a child.
But to me, there are also a million “lesser wonders,” those things that I call the lower-case “w” wonders. They are those things that you could sit in front of for hours and still not really grasp how they fit into the world. They are those things that cause you to pause and just say, “Huh.”
Recently, I ran across one such wonder while on a drive with my husband as he was checking the carrot fields. As we turned the corner to drive further down onto a gravel road, there it was: a total contradiction to the landscape that surrounds it. A graveyard for old forklifts…yep, forklifts.
And then I had that gut reaction that caused the inner me to simply want to say, “Huh?” I asked my hubby to pull over so I could just try and grasp it. Thinking I had lost my mind, he rolled his eyes, yet lovingly pulled the car over so I could take it all in. I don’t know why it was so disarming to me; logically it seems that they would have to go somewhere, yet I had never really given any thought as to where they would go.
As I sat there looking at the rows and rows of rusted old forklifts, trying to come up with something that someone could do to re-purpose them, it dawned on me: I was not alone. Had someone been able to come up with such a plan, these sad little machines wouldn’t still be sitting here, causing me to take a pause, a sad little tribute to our modern civilization.
“There has to be something that someone can do,” I heard myself pleading. (But I have to admit, I wasn’t quite ready to be the first one to adopt one and stick it into my front yard with a pot of flowers on it.) But still I kept thinking, someone should really do something. In that moment, more than any one moment before, I was thankful for those artists who can take this stuff and find a way to make it useful again.
I left there with no real solution, but it will forever be one of those scenes I replay in my mind…a small “w” wonder.
hi rene,Love the blog….the old forklifts are for scrap iorn,and i dont know what it is worth in your state but in missouri it is worth 1.25lb,i think but i havent called in a while, that is for short,last time i called was on earth day for my daddy,he deals in scrap now that he is 82 years old and has quite a business now just piddling with it,aluminium cans are down right now,just .45cents a lb.He regualrly goes to garage sales,and he buys old pots and pans ect that is aluminum.I got to go with him once to the sale and their were over 100 cars in line just waiting to sale scrap.I Think one of those fork lifts would be great to have on the farm,just to clean the barn out.thankx for a geat blog,and i am looking forward to reading more,blessed be,carol branum,the missouri farmers daughter,lamar mo.
Thanks Carol… Sounds like your dad has found a great hobby!