Farm Crisis – Brome Hill

This photo, from left to right, of my siblings, Scott, Susan, and Doug, and our parents, Tom and JoAnn, was taken in the fall of 1984 by Karen Engstrom for a Chicago Tribune photo page feature on my parents during the Farm Crisis. It was published on November 28, 1984. I’m in none of the photos because Engstrom visited in the fall and I was at football practice.

Character, as the old saying goes, is what you do or say when no one is watching or listening.

My mom has great character. And so did my dad.

I’ve always been proud of them, but am even more so after receiving some letters Mom had written during the worst days of the unsuccessful fight she and Dad waged to save our family’s farm in the 1980s. The package arrived Saturday. It includes a letter dated December, 6, 1984. In the letter, Mom mentions a story and page of photos the Chicago Tribune had published about our family.

Tag: Farm Crisis

Priorities worth praising and passing on to others