How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm...

Orga­ni­za­tion pro­vides a chance for ‘coun­try folk’ to get together

BY SHARON SEMANIE

“How ya gonna keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree” are musi­cal lyrics which could aptly apply to the Sin­gles in Agri­cul­ture (SIA) orga­ni­za­tion whose 400 mem­bers tra­verse the United States in search of “edu­ca­tional, recre­ational and social oppor­tu­ni­ties for sin­gles who have an agri­cul­ture background.”

The non-profit orga­ni­za­tion, whose office is head­quar­tered in Stock­ton, Ill., pro­vides myr­iad oppor­tu­ni­ties for friend­ship, fel­low­ship, travel, inex­pen­sive events and a chance to get together with other “coun­try folk” in a 20-state area, accord­ing to the SIA Pres­i­dent Carol Jones of Dixon, Ill.

An enthu­si­as­tic retiree who joined the orga­ni­za­tion six years ago, Jones sug­gests mem­ber­ship in SIA “has allowed me to visit places I would never have been” includ­ing salt mines in Kansas and an earth lodge in Nebraska. Mem­bers travel hun­dreds of miles to renew acquain­tances with agri­cul­ture enthu­si­asts whether it be state chap­ter spon­sored events or three national events offered in March, June and September.

Empha­siz­ing that SIA is “not a match­mak­ing group,” Jones said its mem­ber­ship is com­prised of mostly 50-plus boomers — all sin­gles — who enjoy the edu­ca­tional oppor­tu­ni­ties and social out­lets afforded its members.

SIA was formed in the mid-1980s after a sin­gle farmer sent a let­ter to Farm Jour­nal mag­a­zine express­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties of meet­ing sin­gle women inter­ested in a rural lifestyle. His let­ter prompted mag­a­zine staffer Meg Gaige to pen sev­eral arti­cles on the social lives of sin­gle farm peo­ple. In one of her columns, Gaige asked sin­gle reader to send in their name, address and a 50-word biog­ra­phy. The national mag­a­zine report­edly received more than 2,700 responses

In the sum­mer of 1985, Iowan Mar­cella Spindler vol­un­teered to han­dle cor­re­spon­dence from those inter­ested in form­ing a sin­gles orga­ni­za­tion and, one year later, 23 peo­ple met in Peo­ria, Ill. to “take the nec­es­sary steps to make SIA an offi­cial organization.”

“Even though we have had peo­ple meet and marry that isn’t the main pur­pose of the group. At almost all of our get-togethers we end with a dance. We don’t pro­mote smok­ing or drink­ing,” notes the char­ter. To that end, Jones quips “We’ve had 20 cou­ples get mar­ried (as a result of SIA mem­ber­ship) who are now known as Sin­gles No More.”

The national fall fes­ti­val event is sched­uled in Han­ni­bal, Mo., the week­end of Sept. 6–9. Mem­bers will tour the Mark Twain Home and Museum and enjoy a trol­ley tour and leisurely cruise the Mis­sis­sippi River. In between will be evening din­ner dances and oppor­tu­ni­ties to tour the city. On Sun­day, adds Jones “we’ll get together for break­fast, hugs and goodbyes.”

This marks the 20th year the SIA chap­ter in Illi­nois will host the annual Thanks­giv­ing din­ner. “At least 10 peo­ple from six or seven states drive to a com­mu­nity cen­ter in a small Illi­nois town where we pre­pare turkey, home­made dress­ing and mashed pota­toes and all the trim­mings,” she noted. Every­one brings a dish to pass and fol­low­ing din­ner, we dance dur­ing the after­noon, enjoy left­overs at 5 p.m. and go home.”

Jones fondly recalls the first time she was involved in the Thanks­giv­ing feast. “I was amazed because this was the first time for a lot of mem­bers who don’t have fam­i­lies liv­ing nearby or are already deceased. Although it (Thanks­giv­ing) was always a big fam­ily day for me, I real­ized that there are so many peo­ple who don’t have tra­di­tional fam­ily gatherings.”

Among the atten­dees who fre­quents the hol­i­day feast is Jerry Oster­loh of Piqua, an 81-year-old retiree who cur­rently serves as a board mem­ber on the Ohio SIA chap­ter. A Min­ster High School grad­u­ate, Oster­loh was a machine oper­a­tor and mate­r­ial han­dler for 33 years in sev­eral local man­u­fac­tur­ing firms before retir­ing in 1993. His father was a farmer who tended 120 acres and Oster­loh him­self prides him­self in dri­ving a John Deere trac­tor at 13 years of age. As one of nine chil­dren — four brother and four sis­ters — he jok­ingly remarks that “all are mar­ried except me…cause I knew better.”

His inter­est in join­ing SIA came about as the result of a news­pa­per adver­tise­ment. “Although I didn’t know what it was about, I found it quite inter­est­ing because they (mem­bers) travel dif­fer­ent places and it was like enjoy­ing lit­tle vaca­tions for me. To date I’ve only missed two con­ven­tions. If you’re sin­gle and have an agri­cul­tural back­ground and like trav­el­ing and sight­see­ing you can see the world a lit­tle bit more rather than sit­ting at home,” He espe­cially enjoys the chap­ter and con­ven­tion get-togethers and danc­ing. “I’m a rea­son­ably good dancer “ he laughed “Age has taken its toll and I can’t move as well as I used to. I’ve got my own style of danc­ing so I’ll tell a woman ‘If you can put up with me, you’re all set.’”

Oster­loh was to serve as host for an Ohio chap­ter out­ing Aug. 31 to Sept. 1, to include a sin­gles dance, the Piqua Her­itage Fes­ti­val and pon­toon boat ride/dinner on Indian Lake. Fes­tiv­i­ties were to begin at the Palazzo in Botkins with a dance Aug. 31, fol­lowed by break­fast at McDon­alds in Piqua the next morn­ing and atten­dance at the Her­itage Fes­ti­val. By mid-afternoon the group planned to retreat to Indian Lake for a pon­toon boat ride and dinner.

Ohio SIA Chap­ter Pres­i­dent Dar­lene Foos said a tour of the Hart­zler Dairy in Wooster and dance on Dec. 1 and 2 final­izes this year’s activ­i­ties in Ohio.

A Galion native, Foos became affil­i­ated with SIA upon the loss of her first hus­band who died of can­cer. She was left to tend 185 acres of farm­land and raise two chil­dren. “I knew I wanted to marry a farmer so I got involved in all the orga­ni­za­tions I could but I didn’t find the right guy,” she explained. “Trav­el­ing to events got to be dif­fi­cult although I enjoyed the com­pan­ion­ship and oppor­tu­nity to travel to national events. Chap­ter pres­i­dent the past six years Foos was for­tu­nate to meet and marry Dan Foos nine years ago. Besides tend­ing their farms — he owns 600 acres in Rich­wood — the cou­ple vaca­tion in Florida one month each year and enjoy their four grandchildren.

Although mar­ried, Dar­lene Foos enjoys the cama­raderie of SIA and friend­ships she’s cul­ti­vated over the years. “You make friends from every state if you go to the nation­als,” noted the con­ge­nial 64-year-old who is also employed as a mail car­rier. “One (SIA) lady from Lex­ing­ton, Ky. invited me to come stay with her when she learned I was attend­ing a postal con­ven­tion” in her city.

For more infor­ma­tion about Sin­gles In Agri­cul­ture, visit the Ohio Chap­ter web­site at www.singlesinagriculture.org/ohio,html or national site at www.,singlesinagriculture.org/.

Sharon Semanie writes for the

Piqua Daily Call.

Posted by Rachel Lloyd on Sep 11 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.