Oren Root would have been 105 Friday. He lived to be 92 and died in 2000. He saw most of the twentieth century from a washed away, blown away part of Oklahoma. He combined forces with my mother in 1929 and they literally made something out of nothing in the most challenging period in plains history.
I look back at their lives with admiration for what they did and sadness that the depression scarred them so badly that they could not risk much on the better times that passed them by in the 1950?s and beyond. Looking back, they could have owned hundreds of acres rather than surviving on a quarter section that they bought only to keep from having to move off of it as the owner was determined to sell in the early 1950?s. (They paid $8,000 – 100% seller financed)
This week, Bill Northey, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, saluted almost 400 families who celebrated a century of farm ownership. ?I shook somewhere north of 2,500 hands,? he said after the event was over. ?Just to see the look on the faces of the current generation was worth it all.? What a challenge to maintain ownership through so many difficult economic periods.
My parents protected ownership of their farm like it was a fort. They never considered selling it. My mother would say: ?If times get bad, you can all come back here.? That?s a defeating statement to generations who only know how high we can climb but, for my mother, there was always worry of how far you might fall.
I?ve had times that I could have made a lot of money in my life. I have never seen them clearly except by looking back or reading about them in the promotions sent to me by investment funds.
?If you?d put $10,000 dollars in the Janus fund in 1970, you could have had a million dollars by 1998?. Yes, but where would you have gotten $10,000 in 1970? I was in college at the time and trying to pay $14 per hour tuition at Oklahoma State University.
There are opportunities that pass by us every day. The desire to get rich quickly may be strong but it is very unlikely. My parents taught me that determination and discipline will keep you on the road even though you may be moving pretty slow. Society urges us to speed up and to risk more to gain more. In theory, I agree with that philosophy but I also fear winding up in the ditch.
By the way, that farm in Oklahoma, that only holds the world together, finally grew a good crop in the late 1980?s: two gas wells. They faded fast but my parents retired on that money and a small check still comes to each of their children, every month. Work hard, work smart, and live below your means. You never know which investment will pay off the best.
