Showing posts with label Lancaster County. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lancaster County. Show all posts

Saturday, June 16, 2012

No Legacy

It's been a few weeks since I returned from my trip to the parent's farm in Pennsylvania and I've been a little pissed-off since, due to my being informed that my Dad is planning to sell the place. This means that we will have no farm property to go visit any more. I thought families handed down their properties? I suppose that is so 20th century of me. Or my brother will get it. They always liked him better and he got everything handed to him-talk about a charmed existence!

It will be a disappointing end to what had always been a hope of mine to eventually be a part of the "country place". I had been born too early to enjoy the farm, having turned 18 and left home before it had even been built. This was back in the days when kids actually left home at 18 and it was an embarrassment to end up back at home living with your parents after college.

I tried to return a few times to work in the family business when I was older, but it just never worked out. They were fixated on the yard work, not building a legacy. They wanted farm hands. I was educated, so it was always an insult to be stuck in the yard doing work I could have skipped college to do. Regardless I always thought the farm would somehow be handed down when my parents passed on, but I guess that fantasy was unrealistic, at best.

This is probably the beginning of my Father's plan to eventually disown me altogether. With his being a Stepfather originally, I think my Mom was our only tie and since she passed away, he really doesn't owe me. I guess it will be no surprise, just a disappointment.

What makes this so wrong in my head is that we were here already when I was 6 years old. Dad had moved us to the area from Minneapolis and I had immediately fit right in with all the country-kids. Then, after less than a year and right after I had made several local friends, we then moved to the Philadelphia suburbs, which I totally hated. They then proceeded to go out and adopt another child seven years later and then moved back to the same neighborhood with big bucks and bought a farm, which the new kid then got to grow up on. He even got a full-time job which involved, you guessed it, working on the farm his whole life, so he never even had to go to college or anything!!!

So next time you feel like you've been left out of something, just take a look at what I got left out of. That should make you feel better.
The Jewel in the Crown


"Trying to fit in"- early 1980's.........

"You missed a spot boy."
After 4 Years of College- Kurt, painting 2 1/2 miles of fence: 1984

My adopted brother on the other hand, will get this nice little 40 acre plot, apparently just for showing up late and missing out on the poverty. The older son in this case gets just a case of beer. Bend over and get ready for the screw-job of the century!

40 acres - My adopted brother's latest gift just for showing up.....
One way to get a legacy-mow a lot of grass, kiss a lot of ass...



Thursday, May 31, 2012

Trip Home

I ventured "home" to Pennsylvania for the third time in a year recently to take part in spreading my Mother's ashes on the "estate" - farm property they have inhabited since the early 1980's. I've always considered it home, although I only got to live there for a five year stretch after it was first built. My Dad left home in the Upper Midwest with $50.00 in his pocket in the mid-1960's and eventually bought this place after two decades in the insurance business. Either he was pretty good at it, it was a great era for business, or both. I tried to move back to the area two or three times through the years, but my parents never were very supportive of such a move and it always ended in frustration. This particular visit, my Dad was in such a bad mood and was so nasty, that I don't think it bodes well for future visits, if I ever get invited again. So much for fantasies of getting some land in my old age. I think it may finally be the end of the line for my little country vacations. Still I've always been fond of the farm, which my Dad intends to sell soon. Here are some pictures of a country place with great privacy:

My favorite kind of neighbors....none!

"back forty"

Lower Entrance

View from guest-room window

Mom's kitchen for almost three decades

Guest-room balcony facing the pool

View of the pool from the guest room balcony