Deere John.

Ever since I set foot on Sholan Farms I wanted to drive the tractor. After about a month of working there I asked Bob, "Will you teach me to drive the tractor?" I feared he'd want a sexual favor in return but luckily he just said, "What are you doing tomorrow?" I said, "Nothing."

Tomorrow came and went. We repeated this scenario many times.

Well. Today. Tomorrow finally arrived.

I was saying my "good-byes" to Courtney and Bob and I aked Bob, "Will you finally teach me how to drive this?" He replied, "What are you doing tomorrow?"

I said, "Bob. Today is my last day."

He smiled and said, "Get in."

I climbed into the cab.

Within 5 minutes he'd parked on a flat part of the orchard, the road between blocks 5 and 7. I hopped into the drivers seat. I asked a ton of questions. All the knobs and instrumentation were unfamiliar. "What's that I asked?" pointing to a knob. "The windshield wipers." (Duh.)

I put her in gear and soon we were crawling through the orchard. This tractor will hit a top speed of somewhere near 25 miles per hour. We cruised 5 MPH. When I stepped on the gas, just to get a feel for it, he said, "Slow down. There are people in the orchard." I don't think I'd even reached 8 MPH and had no idea I was pushing the speed envelope. There was something in Bob's tone when he cautioned me, he tends to joke around and has a great laugh, that made me think he might actually care about things.

Sometimes the people who seem the most casual are the folks who have the greatest concern.

We went through the orchard and I was surprised he let me drive for a long as he did. I marveled at how few apples were left on the trees. The leaves have started to turn yellow. Less than 8 weeks ago the foliage was deep green and enormous cortlands hung in Block 5. Today. No more.

Bob said, "I'm stripping the orchard clean."

Even though I want to go back to the orchard next week to work, stripping trees is just about the easiest way to earn a few bucks since you only have to make sure the apples aren't rotten otherwise it's anything goes. I've been pretty particular about picking and Bob once told me, "You've got good hands." I've never told him that I can gently pick 2 apples at a time. Not only do I have good hands, I've got big hands.

I'm not melancholy about leaving the country and the orchard. I know I'm supposed to head to the City. It's, "Adios," to tractors, and bushel baskets, and spending 8 hours a day outdoors. And it's, "Hello," to I-don't-know-what.