Thursday, September 08, 2011
Husband and wife - deaf farmers
In an old Deaf Mosaic video that was produced in 1994 I came across an old married deaf couple who were Oklahoma farmers for over 50 years known as Ruby and Harold Moeller. You can watch the video of the Moellers starting at the 21:19 mark. The Deaf Mosaic video of the Moellers was taken some 17 years ago when they were almost 70 years old. I'm sure they are probably not around anymore. And so the question becomes, where are the next generation of deaf farmers? And exactly how many deaf farmers are there in the United States? To have a deaf farmer, much less a married deaf couple who are both farmers, is a rare thing to come across. Much is appreciated to any and all farmers who help grow our food and other products for the United States. It ain't easy.
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6 comments:
This was interesting film. I wonder if Moller family belong to Barry Sewell's generation? What happen to Barry so far?
Hi, Mike The closest I can come up with is Barry Sewell and his wife, Cristal. But I think they are more ranchers than farmers but I could be wrong.
Tousi
Sounds like you are thinking of becoming a farmer? If so, I am sure you'd become good at farming... :-)
Karen,
Nope. Not a rancher, either. I'd like to have a small ranch when I retire so that's a long ways off but it wouldn't be in the midwest.
I know a deaf fellow whose family are farmers. This deaf guy continues to farm. I'm not sure if he is farming his family's land or farming other people's land which is common among farmers. That practice is common since farmer's offsprings do not always want to carry on with farming. This guy is the only deaf person I know that farms and he does his farming in Illinois. It would be interesting to learn of other deaf farmers as well.
It's always nice hearing there are more and more deaf people involved in farming life like myself. I saw a clip of the deaf farmers.. Wow! it is an inspiration. It would have been great to show hearing people out there in this world of ours that we're just as capable of doing anything as they are (with exception of using the ears to hear of course). I am deaf Canadian involved in the horse business and have been for most of my life. I can say with absolute certainity that it is NOT easy. It is not just the work on the farm itself. We are constantly faced with obstacles, oppression and lack of respect from those who are ignorant to our culture. I always say "They're probably afraid because they were never exposed to people of our kind, therefore it makes up for their lack of ability to blend (communicate, work with, etc) in with our kind of people in work field or outside". Keep it up deaf farmers! It would be really really wonderful if someone (a deaf farmer) could come forward and say that they have experience with breeding animals (horses, cows, but preferably horses specifically) and share it with us all. The more educated people are, the better things will be for everyone involved.
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