The Triangle R Ranch

Future Farmers of America, like the Boy Scouts, had rank advancements. The ranks were Greenhorn, Chapter Farmer, State Farmer and American Farmer. I made Greenhorn as a freshman. After my first project and filling other requirements, I made Chapter Farmer. Most kids only made Chapter Farmer. I wanted to make State Farmer, which was hard to do. There were several things I could do to attain that rank, and one was to enter and win the FFA Public Speaking Contest. By winning the regional competition and qualifying to go to the State contest, I would qualify for State Farmer. I entered the contest; my subject was in favor of removing government price supports on farm products. To my surprise, and joy, I won the local contest. I kept winning. Soon, I was at the regional contest, and I won there. I went to the State contest and had as good a shot as anyone, but came up short. Had I won there, I would have gone to National. The competitors at National made American Farmer, the highest rank. I did make State Farmer and that was my goal. I still have all my FAA rank pins.

Every summer, the FFA from all three schools, and in my senior year, four schools (new high school), had the annual FAA picnic. We planned for it all year and it was a time of camaraderie not only with our chums from school, but our friends from the other schools as well. The biggest event of the day was the softball game. We always lost. We prepared for slow pitch, and the other school for fast pitch. I never even saw the ball fly by me. Every year we would say “next year’, but then next year it was the same thing. We had grilled hamburgers and all the fixings. Most of the veggies we actually grew. While I was in school, the hamburger was fresh ground and came from Uncle Henry’s Highlife restaurant. Uncle Henry always trimmed his own meat and when it was time for the annual picnic, Mom and I would go down to the Highlife and grind trimmings of New York steaks into hamburger. He would end up donating about 50 pounds each year.

To thank Uncle Henry, he was invited every year to the annual FAA Blue and Gold (sound like Cub Scouts) banquet. At the very first banquet he attended, he was awarded HONORARY CHAPTER FARMER. In my senior year I won the Public Speaking contest, and I spoke at that banquet. Then I had the honor of bestowing the rank of HONORARY STATE FARMER on Uncle Henry. As far as I know, he was the first person in San Jose to be awarded Honorary State Farmer.

Every fall the FAA chapter sponsored a Christmas card sales project. The money raised from the sale of Christmas cards helped defray some costs of the activities we had each year. As a reward for meeting our goal every year, Mr. Ralston took the boys who qualified by selling a minimum number of boxes of cards, to a snow trip in the Sierras. We would go to Sonora, CA and stay in the gym at the high school. The Principal of the high school was an old friend of Mr. Ralston and let us go up there each year. The cost to each boy was minimal, mostly to cover the food. We would leave out on Friday after school and have all day Saturday and part of Sunday to play. We came home Sunday afternoon. We would rent toboggans and sleds and have a great time. When I think of the things we did in school and compare them to what goes on today, I wonder how we ever survived. We didn’t have chartered busses or parents drive us up, we all piled into cars driven by students. We usually had 20 or so attend, and the only adult was Mr. Ralston… and he spent most of his time with his friend.

We would travel at breakneck speeds down the sledding hills on toboggans. And we did some pretty stupid things, and some of those things, now as an adult, really scare me. I know I wouldn’t let my grandkids pull any of the stunts we pulled. One time we were traveling down a crusty snow bank in the early morning. I had forgotten to bring my gloves, and when I got to the bottom of the hill, my frozen fingers were bleeding! In the early mornings the snow was crusty, and the crust could be like razor blades! Another time there were three of us on the toboggan and I was in the middle. Half way down the hill we hit a large bump and we all went flying off. While flying off, I slammed my neck into the head of the fellow in front of me. His head hit me right where my vocal chords are. I started spitting blood, but since I was not hurt otherwise, I didn’t seek medical help. However, I did bruise my vocal chords and spoke very softly for several days. And this was fun?

Because of the nature of running an orchard and a ranch, Mr. Ralston required help all day. He had the VoAg classes 3rd to 6th periods everyday, but needed someone for 2nd and 7th periods. So a special class was held those two periods. AG SHOP was the class designed to fill that need. A student had to be invited by Mr. Ralston to take Ag Shop, and generally only one student was invited per class. The class was offered only to seniors. I was invited to take 2nd period Ag Shop and Farns, 7th period. My regular Ag class was 3rd and 4th periods, which meant three of my morning classes every day were Ag, 1st period being PE. My main duty was to help out with the 9th grade class from Hoover. On field trips to the ranch, I would drive the truck out, and would have a load of students in the back of the truck. It was a lawyers dream! Fortunately, there were no accidents. The side racks on the truck were like the ones on military trucks and folded down to bench seating. School was over for me after 6th period, but I usually stayed until after 7th and helped out in Ag Shop. Then Farns and I would walk home.

The beginning of my Senior Year I applied to go to college at Cal Poly in San Louis Obispo, CA. I figured that my last shot of ever owning the Triangle R Ranch was to get a degree in some sort of Ag Science. Mr. Ralston helped me apply for scholarships, but in the end I opted to stay in San Jose and attend San Jose City College. The day I enrolled in City College, I knew I would never raise another steer. The Triangle R would remain a distant memory somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind. But I did raise some beautiful tomatoes in Alabama