Oceana County MI Archives News.....One Never Forgets Life on a Farm June 1977
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Vicki Davey VDavey7806@aol.com March 19, 2009, 3:40 pm

Oceana Herald June 1977
New Era, Michigan
	Farmers who move into town after retirement, visualizing a life of ease 
away from the daily chores and seasonal pressures which go hand in hand with 
agriculture, often find this new life far from fulfilling.  When Carl Rabe sold 
his 270 acre farm to his two youngest sons because his health was failing, he 
too thought city life would be the answer.  He found, however, that he was so 
homesick for the old farm that he began to hire out to help other farmers 
during their busy seasons just to get back to the old scenes and to experience 
again the satisfaction of accomplishment which was once part of his everyday 
life.  Unlike the factory worker who does one operation and perhaps never sees 
the finished product which he has helped create, the farmer observes the result 
of his labor all about him, and weather permitting, a good harvest reflects his 
skill at his trade  For Carl Rabe there was also the satisfaction of seeing his 
farm operation grow from a small 60 acre beginning to one of the largest and 
finest farms in the Stony Lake vicinity.  Born in the house where the Claybanks 
Creamery later located, Rabe was only 1 1/2 years old when his father died when 
thrown from one of the fast horses which had been his hobby.  His childhood, 
however was a happy time of his life during which he developed a keen interest 
in baseball which carried over into his participation on local teams as a young 
men. " I sure enjoyed baseball."  he remembers, "But I never owned a baseball 
glove in all of my life.  But that didn't stop me from playing or catching a 
fly with my bare hands.  I broke a finger once that way but I kept right on 
playing on the team."  In time he married Annie Dzur, a local girl, and the 
couple decided upon farming as their livelihood.  If, as it is often said, sons 
are a farmers greatest blessing, the Rabes were indeed richly blessed...they 
had five of them.  As the boys grew Rabe started a milk route.  "Had to keep 
them busy," he explains, " I had 19 milk cows and that meant lots of work, and 
they were real handy on the delivery route, too."  He gave this up during World 
War II when four of his boys entered the service, only the youngest one being 
deferred to help on the farm.  He then raised beef cattle, averaging about 150 
head, trucking them to Chicago and Detroit markets.  "One thing that kept the 
boys interested in farming was that I always made it a point to buy the latest 
in farm equipment.  If there was any new machinery on the market I had to buy 
it.  New inventions made farming interesting and more profitable," he tells 
us.  After the boys came home again the three oldest went to school to learn 
pattern making and established themselves in Muskegon.  Then after 36 years of 
farming Rabe sold the farm to the two youngest sons because of failing health.  
He now lives in downtown New Era.

"But I couldn't get farming out of my blood," he laughs, " I helped out at 
different farms and kept about 100 hens and some rabbits and raised 
raspberries, supplying the neighborhood".  He was 85 before he quit this and 
now has only a small garden in his back yard.  He will be 89 next month.


Additional Comments:
This man was my grandfather.  He and Grandma lived opposite the New Era Bible 
Church.

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