Monday, September 3, 2007

You Been Farming Long?

With Iowa recently in the news for the Straw Poll and soon the caucuses, I am reminded of my seven years there in rural Buchanan County, north of Cedar Rapids. These two Little Farmers in their bib overalls might be any two guys you see at the grain elevator in any little Iowa town.


Here (edited) is the story behind the picture, which I know to be true because I found it on the internet.

When I took this picture of my twin sons, Matt and Chris, in September, 1978, they were only 1-1/2 years old. At that time, we lived on "the mesa", just across from a little town called San Miguel, CA (northern San Luis Obispo County). An overnight visitor was on her way home that morning and wanted a couple pictures of the boys before she left. So, I got my camera out and took a few also. After all, they had their brand new Osh Kosh overalls on!

When the photos came back, there was that one extra-special shot--the lighting was just right, the focus just right, and the expression was priceless. I decided to enter it in the San Luis Obispo County Fair (now known at the Mid-State Fair). Well, it came in 3rd place! But, so many people liked it that they were looking up my name in the phone book in order to ask if they could buy a reprint.

Over the next couple of years the photo was used on a Guernsey cow breeders magazine, a Babson Bros. dairy equipment company calendar and then a Saturday newspaper supplement cover that was syndicated across the U.S.

One day in 1982, I got a telephone call from a man named Roy Reiman, a publisher of magazines mainly geared to "country" type people. He had an idea for using the picture on the first issue of a new magazine he was about to publish--Country Kids. When I received the offer, he had decided he wanted to do a poster instead of the cover and then he would offer one poster free for each new subscription to Country Kids. The poster came out with the caption "You been farming long?" on it and that seemed to be exactly what it took for people to love it.
For a good book on this American farm life, a fine novel is Farm: A Year in the Life of an American Farmer by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes. Sadly, it is currently out of print.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

my friend, has this poster on his wall in his cottage and we chuckle over it often.........those boys are so cute.....does anyone know anything more bout them and is it possible to still get a print of the photo.

Anonymous said...

I just looked them up on ebay before I found this site. So I know you can get them on there but I don't know about actual reprints. My boyfriends family has this picture hung up at their family farm in KY. and now that we have a son of our own (who's room is done in John Deere!!!) I want one for our house. I also went to a friends house who had another picture like this, with a little boy looking out the front door at his dad on a tractor and it had a cute saying but I can't remember what it was. Good luck!!

Tom W, said...

I have heard that this is the best selling poster of all time. I was told that the kids got $1 each for every poster sold and the kids grew up millionaires.
Can anyone vouch for the veracity of that account.

Anonymous said...

My Grandfather had this hanging in his kitchen. When he moved he re-hung it in thier new kitchen. It is something that has always brought a smile to my face. The irony to the story to me is that my Grandpa went to Cal Poly and farmed his whole life. I will have to pass the story onto the rest of the family. Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous said...

These boys are doing great, they have grown up to be fine young men & start families of their own. How would I know? I am there step-sister. Keep reading the article to find out how much they really made from the print. It will surprise you!

Anonymous said...

It seems like I saw an updated picture of these two young farmers when they were grown men. Does anyone know where one could see it?

Anonymous said...

From the "Top of Idaho"...
We have a large outdoor thermometer with this picture on it, hanging on a tree. It has been here since way back when the picture was first popular. We are glad to have it.

Andy Vance said...

To the previously anonymous step-sister: I'm a blogger/reporter trying to track down the boys in the picture... So many of us grew up with this picture in our parents' (or in my case, grandparents') kitchens and living rooms that I'd really like to do the story justice... I've read the above-referenced story about the origin of the photo, but I'd really like to dig in a little deeper to what Paul Harvey always called "the rest of the story." If you could help point me in the right direction, I'd be grateful. You can find me at AndyVance.com. Thanks in advance for your consideration.