Another Day in the Country
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
Way back in the early 1900s my grandpa helped start the original co-op in Ramona. The farmers banded together for the common good to Co-Operate a business — everyone would benefit.
Ramona, as a town, is smaller than it once was; but still standing. Grandpa has been gone for almost 50 years but his granddaughter is currently mayor. That cooperative effort he helped found has changed hands several times and here we are in 2007, and it's still functioning with headquarters in Tampa. We call it "The Co-op" still but it's formal name is Agri Producers Inc.
Group effort, whether it is founding a town, starting an elevator business, or beginning a family, has ramifications that impact a community for years and years and years.
I often think of the group effort involved when our fore-fathers decided to build a park in Ramona. I imagine them planting the trees. Years later, it was group effort that built a tennis court. Thirty or so years after that it was group effort that built the shelter house we all enjoy. Group effort has planted trees, cleaned up the creek bed, put in flowers. Not so long ago, group effort put up new basketball standards and built a horseshoe pit in that very same park.
Most recently, group effort built a bathroom in our park for everyone to enjoy. It's a testament to the power of an idea — and perseverance.
While we call these improvements that benefit us all a group effort, it's still the individual faces that swim up before my eyes as I write about community cooperation. It's the Jeannies of this world who have a vision and the will to keep on slogging toward a goal. It's the Angels, Tonyas, Pats, and Jesses who cook soup for the benefit suppers and the Pauls and Collins of the world who come to eat. It's guys like Art who are down at the park working on into the night and the brothers-in-law like David who help out. It's men like Tim, Jayme, Billy, and Chet who are there when you need them. It's the Dons and the Roberts of the community who plod on, taking care of things, even when they aren't feeling well.
My Uncle Hank used to say, "before we had 911, we had each other. We always knew that we could count on our neighbors."
In any small community, we always are testing that theory. Very quickly we discover who we can count on and as I write this column, a good portion of our community comes to mind.
We haven't started any new co-operative business ventures lately in Ramona, but we are working hard to preserve and improve the legacy we've been handed. Thanks to all of you, in all of our small towns, who keep that zeal of Co-Operating alive so that future generations can experience the joy of living another day in the country.
