To help me to better understand what they were saying the Sullivan’s had a couple of places that they said I had to see in order to finish this article and make it complete.

Our first stop, the high school football game. This is where you will find most of the people in Woodson on a Friday Night. And most of them farmers and they all had stories. Stories from everything from helping a sick neighbor get their fields plowed while they were down to people moving away and moving back when it came time to start having children. All of these people telling me that they would not want to raise their kids any other way then on a farm. For example I met Angie Hewlett at the football game and she went to school at Woodson and moved away and when her two boys Nathan and Jacob Hewlett got school age it was time to move back. When I ask her why she said the same thing that the rest of the people in this town said, I would not want to raise my kids anywhere else. It is home and where my family lives.

At half time after getting to see Summer Sullivan win Homecoming Queen it was time to go. And by the way congratulations again Summer, on winning Woodson High School Homecoming Queen.

We followed Parker Sullivan to our last stop before heading home and having to leave Woodson. But, Parker insured me that this is one place that I had to see before leaving and he was right.

The locals call it the beer store but the name of the place is The County Line. My first thought was why Parker wants me to see this place. And once I got inside I knew why. You walk in and you are greeted by Patti and Jeff Kramer. They are the owners of the beer store. You could look around and just see the history in this place. Patti took me out back and showed me where they had horse shoes set up and washers set up. She began to tell me that this was a place were the local farmers can come and unwind after a long day.

I ask her what it was like running a place where most of her customers are farmers. She said it was great. She began explaining what it was like. She said that these guys pretty much stick together. For example if one of them becomes ill or if they are having equipment problems that can not be resolved quick enough to get their crop harvest, she said that they all pull together to help each other. And she said by just being there and hearing the stories that these guys tell her she knows all about them and their families. She sees these men go through hard times and good time and would not change it for the world. Patti may not see it in herself, but I can see it in her, this is a lady with a lot of heart and a lot of compassion for the people in her town.

Once we finished talking, Patti started introducing me to some of the people that were there. One of the people that she introduced me to was John Carwel. I ask him if he was a farmer and he said no that he was a rancher. But they have a lot of the same problems that the farmers have. And when I ask what he thought the worst problem they were having was, he said diesel. He said the same thing that I had been told before. The cost of diesel was killing them. The other thing was fertilizer, According to Carwel, it was costing farmers and rancher about twenty-five dollars an acre to fertilize. He tells me that most farmers and ranchers just can not afford to fertilize the way they would like to. I thanked John for his time and told Patti thank you for her help. But now it was time to leave.

So the way I would like to end this article is easy. If you are a reporter and are planning on writing about farmers, do yourself a favor and put your phone down and step away from your computer. Go out in the field and see what it is really like from the farmer’s point of view.

If you are a farmer I would like to tell you, THANK YOU for all that you do on a regular bases with very little recognition from the public.

I would like to send a special Thank you to the town of Woodson Texas for letting me in your life’s and telling me your stories. And to the Sullivan family, Thank You for giving me the opportunity of a life time. I will always hold a special place in my heart for the Sullivan family and the people of Woodson Texas.

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