The Keynote Presenter

When I speak to audiences about the impact of Sears and Roebuck on rural America most audiences are acquainted with the Sears catalogs and the Sears House Kits. However, my goal is to get them to say “I didn’t know that!” and that is the response I received from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute members when I spoke to them on September 16 about the Sears sponsored fur buying program, the livestock chains, the WLS radio station, the paying of extension agent salaries, the farmers markets, the barn kits, college scholarships for agriculture students plus much more, The image below is of the mailing label used to ship furs to Sears.

After a two year hiatus because of Covid, it was nice to return to Chautauqua to speak in person. My topic this year was “From Cradle to Grave: The Impact of Sears Roebuck on Rural America.” Most people are familiar with Sears and their catalog. And some folks know of their house kits. But Sears did a lot more for rural America.

I discussed the many things Sears and Roebuck did to help rural America that most people don’t know about such as paying the salaries of county agents in the early days, buying furs and wool from farmers, sponsoring corn, cotton and canning contests, establishing farmer markets, starting livestock chains (chickens, pigs, dairy heifers, sheep) for 4-H and FFA members, and providing thousands (yes thousands) of scholarships for rural boys and girls to go to college to study agriculture and home economics. They also worked with the Grange and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs of American on community improvement projects. Sears also bought 1,500 pedigreed bulls that were loaned to farmers free of charge in the South. They even owned a farm oriented radio station. And there is even more.

Even though there were over 2,000 in attendance at the opening session of the Agricultural Teachers Association of Texas conference earlier this week, I still was able to interact with and involve the audience in the keynote presentation. After some introductory remarks I shared the four key points I planned to make during the presentation. They were:
Agriculture Teachers in Texas are ________________.
Agriculture Teachers in Texas go _________________.
Agriculture Teachers in Texas have ________________.
Agriculture Teachers in Texas make ________________.

The audience had to guess what word or words completed each statement. It was fun and interesting. I then filled in the blanks over the next 45 minutes.

I enjoyed being with the Georgia Agricultural Teachers the second week of July. I was a little surprised when they asked for the Keynote address to be “The History and Evolution of the Outhouse” but I obliged them. Of course I ended up with four take home messages that applied to teaching based on the outhouse presentation.

I also agreed to conduct a couple of workshops but they asked me to do six which I did. They were on Balancing Work and Family, Ten Myths and Misconceptions About Agriculture, Booker T. Washington – Traitor or Savior of His Race, From Moon Farming to Satellite Farming, Boys Corn Clubs and Girls Tomato Clubs, Searching for the Wizard of Oz. Needless to say I was a little tired after all that.

I did get a chance to visit the Georgia Museum of Agriculture while in Tifton.

My previous speaking engagement was on the North Carolina Coast and I posted a photo of the Caper Hatteras lighthouse. The most recent speaking engagement was in Oregon so I decided to post a similar photo but this is not a lighthouse, but sort of looks like one. The is the Astoria Column and is an observation tower (164 steps to the top) that overlooks the meeting of the Columbia River with the Pacific Ocean in Astoria, Oregon. The reason I was in Oregon was to kick off the Ag teachers conference and I also conducted two workshops on being a resilient teacher. It was an enjoyable conference.

One of the perks of speaking is that you get a chance along the way to stop and smell the roses. This week is was to look at a lighthouse. Even though I have lived in North Carolina for 30+ years I had never been to the Cape Hatteras lighthouse. This week, while speaking to the North Carolina Association of County Agricultural Agents in Nags Head, North Carolina I was able to make a trip to the lighthouse. What was amazing about the lighthouse is it was moved 1/2 mile inland in 1999 because the shoreline had eroded and it was in danger of falling into the Atlantic Ocean. That was some feat of engineering.

I enjoyed my time with the agents and kicked off the conference with a presentation on the Four R’s of Extension – Resilience, Relevance, Relationships, and Renewal.

I love making presentations because I typically learn something new. Recently I spoke at The Cypress of Raleigh which is an upscale retirement community. My topic was the history of toilet paper. After the presentation, a distinguished-looking gentleman approached me and introduced himself. He was the retired manager of a paper mill in New Hampshire that produced paper products including toilet paper. He wanted to share a letter with me.

The letter was from a couple of students at Michigan State University and was dated April 16, 1971. They were complimenting the paper company for producing a great toilet paper and stated they had found a new use for the toilet paper. In their own words “This dynamic new use is a sport called “roll flushing” in which an entire roll of your tissued is unrolled and simultaneously flushed down a toilet.” The goal was to accomplish this in the shortest possible time.

This student and his roommate held the MSU record of 1 minute and 20 seconds. That was the fastest time at MSU and possibly the world. They were asking the paper company if they could constitute the official “roll flushing” team for the paper company.

I had never heard of roll flushing, so I learned something new.

At times I feel guilty when the audience is laughing so much, but that guilt doesn’t last long. That is because the research says humor helps the audience retain the information presented. When I present, I try to educate or inspire the audience. That was what I was doing yesterday when I spoke to a sold out audience at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Raleigh, NC. I have agreed to a return engagement in the fall.

It was great being on the road again presenting to a live audience. I made two presentations this week at the joint National Association of Agricultural Educators/Association for Career and Technical Education Conference in New Orleans. One presentation was “No Regrets: Live Like You Were Dying” and focused on time management and identifying priorities in one’s life. The second presentation was Becoming a “Resilient Teacher: Lessons Learned from the Dust Bowl and Covid-19 Eras.” I described the impact of the Dust Bowl on America and then the teachers had a robust discussion of the impact of Covid-19 on them and their students and schools. We then examined eight practices to enable teachers to become resilient.

REAL is an acronym for Rurally Engaged Agricultural Leaders. This is a program for students sponsored by the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University. It was REALly enjoyable talking with these students about Land-Grant Colleges on November 5. One of the best questions posed by a REAL student was “When land-grant colleges were first established, where did they find the agriculture professors?” This was a great question. Fortunately, I had the answer.