Field of Dreams
Hard times in Montana—
that seemed to be the norm.
At least that’s all I ever knew
from the moment I was born.
But that all changed with World II;
the country needed meat-
and from Montana; beef and beans,
plus sugar beats and wheat.
All across Montana, ranchers like
John Mohr
planted crops on pasture land
they’d never cropped before.
John Mohr’s lower forty
was planted with seed beans.
Eventually, this bean field
became my “field of dreams.”
Hard times in Montana
Were harder, far, for some…
some on the dole, or WPA
and some were on the bum.
A thirteen year old hopeful,
I searched the town around.
10 cents an hour for tending kids;
that’s all I ever found.
But that all changed with John Mohr’s beans.
Mohr was hiring local teens.
50 cents an hour he paid…
and ten hours every day.
I hoed the beans in John Mohr’s field—
a dreaming all the way.
Ten hours a day of bending down,
And hoeing through a row;
attacking weeds at every step,
and brandishing my hoe.
But I was busy dreaming
about the dough I’d make;
too full of dreams to care if my
poor aching back would break.
I hoed a million weedy rows.
With every ache I swore,
“No more will I wear worn out clothes…
I’m sick of being poor.
This year I’ll wear a rich girls clothes
for all the school to see…..
for when I get my pay from Mohr,
that rich girl will be me.”
I’ve climbed a long way since those days,
but memory sees me poor.
And no check’s ever meant as much
as what I got from Mohr.
The rancher made a profit.
The soldiers got some beans.
And that year, I was duded up
Just like the high school queens.
© 2000, Bette Wolf Duncan
This poem may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
Bette comments: "Field Of Dreams" was the catalyst that precipitated my four web sites. You see, these web sites, which feature over 40 cowboy poets, are the currency I have used to pay back a kindness done to me some 11 or so years ago. Back in the late 1990s a very popular cowboy poetry web site was "CowPokin' Fun" hosted by Carol Tallmen Jones. She picked a cowboy poet ever couple of months or so; and featured poems of that individual on a separate web page with background and audio. I was honored beyond words when she selected "Field of Dreams" and two of my other poems to feature. I can't find the words to express how much this meant to me. I shared it with relatives and friends with immeasurable pride. My four web sites are the means I have used to pay back that kindness. I couldn't pay "CowPokin' Fun" directly, but I have tried to do so indirectly by following the example set by Carol Tallmen Jones.
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