1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:24,436 Speaker 1: Pushkin. One day early last spring, my producer Ben came 2 00:00:24,476 --> 00:00:28,956 Speaker 1: by the house with a lime green box. All right, 3 00:00:28,956 --> 00:00:34,236 Speaker 1: so this is the farming game. All right, the farming game. 4 00:00:34,876 --> 00:00:37,796 Speaker 1: I find a stick or pease guys, so everyone gets ten. 5 00:00:39,116 --> 00:00:43,556 Speaker 1: I'm so daunted by long instructions of board game. They're 6 00:00:43,596 --> 00:00:46,876 Speaker 1: not that long. They'd lose the princison small. Okay. I 7 00:00:46,916 --> 00:00:49,436 Speaker 1: may not love long instructions, but I do love a 8 00:00:49,476 --> 00:00:53,076 Speaker 1: good board game. The game board had fifty two squares 9 00:00:53,276 --> 00:00:56,876 Speaker 1: all around the edges, a calendar, each square a week 10 00:00:56,916 --> 00:01:00,156 Speaker 1: of the year. Like all board games, it was something 11 00:01:00,196 --> 00:01:05,556 Speaker 1: of a time capsule, history in a box. This season 12 00:01:05,596 --> 00:01:08,636 Speaker 1: of the last archive, we're talking about common knowledge, the 13 00:01:08,756 --> 00:01:11,996 Speaker 1: things everybody knows, and farming used to be the most 14 00:01:12,036 --> 00:01:14,916 Speaker 1: common sort of knowledge. How to grow the food you eat, 15 00:01:15,196 --> 00:01:17,756 Speaker 1: how to live on the land around you. That kind 16 00:01:17,796 --> 00:01:20,756 Speaker 1: of knowledge used to be held in communities and families, 17 00:01:21,076 --> 00:01:24,636 Speaker 1: passed down from one generation to the next, or from 18 00:01:24,676 --> 00:01:28,396 Speaker 1: one neighbor to another. But far fewer people know that 19 00:01:28,476 --> 00:01:32,236 Speaker 1: stuff now. When people lose that kind of knowledge, they 20 00:01:32,276 --> 00:01:34,316 Speaker 1: lose a sense of their own place in the world. 21 00:01:35,116 --> 00:01:37,516 Speaker 1: This game isn't just about how to save the farm, 22 00:01:38,076 --> 00:01:42,836 Speaker 1: but about how to save farming. Nice, Okay, So the 23 00:01:42,876 --> 00:01:45,196 Speaker 1: object of the game is well, so it's kind of 24 00:01:45,236 --> 00:01:47,756 Speaker 1: like it's it is to win, it's to make enough 25 00:01:48,436 --> 00:01:50,556 Speaker 1: money farming that you can quit your job in town. 26 00:01:51,676 --> 00:01:53,476 Speaker 1: But it's more than anything, just like not to lose, 27 00:01:53,556 --> 00:01:55,556 Speaker 1: because you sort of it used like start in depth 28 00:01:55,596 --> 00:01:59,556 Speaker 1: and then it just gets worse. The story of the 29 00:01:59,596 --> 00:02:02,756 Speaker 1: Farming Game is one of the craziest stories I've ever heard. 30 00:02:02,996 --> 00:02:06,956 Speaker 1: It's got everything in it, the sixties, geodesic domes, cows. 31 00:02:07,756 --> 00:02:12,076 Speaker 1: So this episode Been is going to tell you that story. Ready, Ben, Ready, 32 00:02:12,516 --> 00:02:15,836 Speaker 1: imagine a place, a barn in the lazy fields of 33 00:02:15,876 --> 00:02:20,116 Speaker 1: your mind, line with shells cluttered with clues, stocked with 34 00:02:20,276 --> 00:02:23,116 Speaker 1: millions of dollars in play money, and all these little 35 00:02:23,156 --> 00:02:26,756 Speaker 1: plastic farmer figurines the boards laid out over on the table. 36 00:02:27,236 --> 00:02:31,596 Speaker 1: I guess I'd better roll these dice. Let's see brings 37 00:02:31,596 --> 00:02:34,876 Speaker 1: me to fall. The second week of October nineteen sixty nine. 38 00:02:35,436 --> 00:02:41,716 Speaker 1: So step through the sliding barn door into an apartment 39 00:02:41,796 --> 00:02:46,196 Speaker 1: living room, start of the semester at the University of Colorado, Denver. 40 00:02:47,156 --> 00:02:52,196 Speaker 1: Move in day. Yeah, it was a two blocks off campus, 41 00:02:52,236 --> 00:02:56,476 Speaker 1: a little teeny apartment. We flip coin, who gets the bedroom, 42 00:02:56,516 --> 00:02:59,716 Speaker 1: Who sleeps in the living room? Oil, I slept in 43 00:02:59,716 --> 00:03:04,036 Speaker 1: the living room. That's George Rohrbacher, inventor of the farming game, 44 00:03:04,116 --> 00:03:07,476 Speaker 1: but not yet at this exact moment, he's creating something 45 00:03:07,636 --> 00:03:10,836 Speaker 1: entirely different. I was in the midst of making a 46 00:03:10,996 --> 00:03:17,076 Speaker 1: fringe suede jacket. I had done some things for a 47 00:03:17,156 --> 00:03:19,916 Speaker 1: guy and he owed me some money. Didn't have any money, 48 00:03:20,076 --> 00:03:23,716 Speaker 1: but he does have a couple of pieces of suede 49 00:03:23,796 --> 00:03:28,316 Speaker 1: that are, you know, right off the cow kind of pieces. 50 00:03:28,996 --> 00:03:31,876 Speaker 1: I'd visited George and Colorado where he lives now, and 51 00:03:31,956 --> 00:03:34,636 Speaker 1: he got out the jacket. Okay. The guy that I 52 00:03:34,716 --> 00:03:39,316 Speaker 1: got the suede from had the most outrageous color of 53 00:03:39,476 --> 00:03:42,716 Speaker 1: suede I'd ever seen, or have seen since. This is 54 00:03:42,756 --> 00:03:49,196 Speaker 1: like a lurid green, purple, lime, green, purple, and orange. 55 00:03:49,516 --> 00:03:51,996 Speaker 1: I believe it was the fringe zone this arm that 56 00:03:52,036 --> 00:03:56,076 Speaker 1: I was cutting. There's your timestamp, nineteen sixty nine, the 57 00:03:56,116 --> 00:04:00,316 Speaker 1: war in Vietnam, anti war protests on campus, Woodstock, George 58 00:04:00,316 --> 00:04:03,636 Speaker 1: and the amazing technicolor suede jacket, which I should say 59 00:04:03,956 --> 00:04:06,436 Speaker 1: it's got like a tuxedo. It's a one of a kind. 60 00:04:06,516 --> 00:04:10,516 Speaker 1: Let's just put it. It's pretty awesome. Oh and tails. 61 00:04:14,476 --> 00:04:16,796 Speaker 1: I'm telling you this not only because the jacket is 62 00:04:16,836 --> 00:04:19,796 Speaker 1: a wormhole to the nineteen sixties, but also because that 63 00:04:19,876 --> 00:04:23,116 Speaker 1: moment with George in his living room slash bedroom was 64 00:04:23,156 --> 00:04:26,116 Speaker 1: the moment his life changed. The sewing was hard work, 65 00:04:26,156 --> 00:04:28,876 Speaker 1: and he gotten hungry for a blt problem was he 66 00:04:28,916 --> 00:04:30,796 Speaker 1: had the bacon, but he didn't own a frying pan. 67 00:04:31,236 --> 00:04:33,516 Speaker 1: He was contemplating this when all of a sudden he 68 00:04:33,596 --> 00:04:36,156 Speaker 1: looked out the window and saw a girl walking by 69 00:04:36,196 --> 00:04:41,636 Speaker 1: on the balcony. Wow. He thought she was gorgeous. He 70 00:04:41,716 --> 00:04:44,716 Speaker 1: also thought she might have a frying pan. And I 71 00:04:44,796 --> 00:04:49,116 Speaker 1: was making a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich and with 72 00:04:49,316 --> 00:04:51,716 Speaker 1: nothing to do. Well. This is prior to the invention 73 00:04:51,756 --> 00:04:55,916 Speaker 1: of microwaves, and the only way you cook bacon is 74 00:04:55,956 --> 00:04:59,156 Speaker 1: in a frying pan. And once you get the taste 75 00:04:59,156 --> 00:05:01,876 Speaker 1: of bacon in your head, it's hard to get it's 76 00:05:01,916 --> 00:05:04,916 Speaker 1: hard to get it about. Yeah, George drops the Swede 77 00:05:04,956 --> 00:05:11,716 Speaker 1: jacket and heads next door. I was in the apartment 78 00:05:11,876 --> 00:05:15,516 Speaker 1: on the phone when there was a knock at the door. 79 00:05:16,076 --> 00:05:18,836 Speaker 1: That's Anne, the girl from the other apartment, also a 80 00:05:18,876 --> 00:05:22,076 Speaker 1: student at the University of Colorado. She answered the door, 81 00:05:22,596 --> 00:05:25,316 Speaker 1: he said, can I borrow a frying pan? She's on 82 00:05:25,356 --> 00:05:28,836 Speaker 1: the phone. Yeah, sure, And I handed him the frying 83 00:05:28,916 --> 00:05:32,556 Speaker 1: pan and he said, I'll bring it back. She gets 84 00:05:32,596 --> 00:05:35,036 Speaker 1: back on the phone and closes the door, and I 85 00:05:35,156 --> 00:05:39,156 Speaker 1: just stand there, just stunted. I was thinking, I want 86 00:05:39,236 --> 00:05:43,356 Speaker 1: to get to know that guy. Well, first off, she's beautiful, 87 00:05:43,636 --> 00:05:51,036 Speaker 1: I mean beautiful, and she had this long honey brown hair. 88 00:05:52,036 --> 00:05:54,676 Speaker 1: She had long hair down to his shoulders head, a 89 00:05:54,676 --> 00:05:58,516 Speaker 1: big beard. Basically, the outside world said there was a 90 00:05:58,596 --> 00:06:02,276 Speaker 1: hippie and he had on overalls and he drove a 91 00:06:02,476 --> 00:06:07,716 Speaker 1: sort of old purple pickup truck and not not only 92 00:06:07,796 --> 00:06:11,836 Speaker 1: beautiful face, but one of these people. After talking to him, 93 00:06:11,916 --> 00:06:18,956 Speaker 1: where you realize the heart inside is every bit or 94 00:06:19,076 --> 00:06:21,956 Speaker 1: more beautiful than the outside. I mean you could just 95 00:06:22,516 --> 00:06:25,716 Speaker 1: or I could just feel it immediately. And the joke 96 00:06:25,876 --> 00:06:27,316 Speaker 1: is I always say I had to marry him to 97 00:06:27,356 --> 00:06:32,436 Speaker 1: get my frying pan back. An Roarbacker, co creator of 98 00:06:32,476 --> 00:06:35,716 Speaker 1: the farming game. First thing George told me the story 99 00:06:35,756 --> 00:06:39,196 Speaker 1: of that game is a love story. Anne went Georgia 100 00:06:39,196 --> 00:06:42,036 Speaker 1: frying pan, he made his blt and then later that 101 00:06:42,156 --> 00:06:46,196 Speaker 1: night he went back over to Anne's apartment, So George 102 00:06:46,236 --> 00:06:51,156 Speaker 1: came over and it was my roommate and I and 103 00:06:51,276 --> 00:06:56,036 Speaker 1: George proceeded to get really high and tell the entire 104 00:06:56,356 --> 00:06:59,356 Speaker 1: movie of King Kong, how it was made, and you know, 105 00:06:59,476 --> 00:07:04,156 Speaker 1: just all of the nuances of where it fit in society. 106 00:07:04,556 --> 00:07:07,636 Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, this guy is nuts. 107 00:07:09,156 --> 00:07:11,356 Speaker 1: I mean, he literally told the entire movie. If you 108 00:07:11,396 --> 00:07:12,996 Speaker 1: ask him a story, he has to go back to 109 00:07:12,996 --> 00:07:16,836 Speaker 1: the very beginning, until every detail from the very beginning. Well, 110 00:07:16,836 --> 00:07:20,156 Speaker 1: you know, it's a strange. That's a strange topic to 111 00:07:21,076 --> 00:07:23,636 Speaker 1: spend the evening talking about with the woman that you're 112 00:07:23,636 --> 00:07:26,636 Speaker 1: gonna ask him marry you in a week and a half. 113 00:07:29,916 --> 00:07:35,196 Speaker 1: But it must have worked. That's Wednesday. Thursday, George walks 114 00:07:35,196 --> 00:07:37,756 Speaker 1: and to class and writes her a poem. Friday, they 115 00:07:37,756 --> 00:07:40,636 Speaker 1: get on a plane to Seattle to meet Ann's parents. Saturday, 116 00:07:40,756 --> 00:07:42,916 Speaker 1: George gets in a long argument with her dad, a 117 00:07:42,956 --> 00:07:46,916 Speaker 1: businessman and veteran, about Vietnam. A week later, George and 118 00:07:46,916 --> 00:07:50,036 Speaker 1: Anna decided to get engaged. This is where I want 119 00:07:50,036 --> 00:07:52,076 Speaker 1: to be, this is who I want to be with. 120 00:07:52,756 --> 00:07:56,876 Speaker 1: It was instantaneous. It was just an knowing that he's 121 00:07:56,996 --> 00:08:00,116 Speaker 1: my partner, he should be my partner and we should 122 00:08:00,236 --> 00:08:04,236 Speaker 1: do life together. Just before Christmas, the square that kicks 123 00:08:04,236 --> 00:08:06,836 Speaker 1: off play on the game board. They tell Anne's parents 124 00:08:06,876 --> 00:08:12,436 Speaker 1: they're getting married. They were not overly excited about George. 125 00:08:12,836 --> 00:08:16,396 Speaker 1: Her parents were horrified, But George and Anne won't change 126 00:08:16,396 --> 00:08:20,196 Speaker 1: their minds. Sometimes you just know. The weeks passed by 127 00:08:20,236 --> 00:08:24,716 Speaker 1: in a haze. Lucky rolls. Only sixes, classes, missed, exams taken, 128 00:08:24,876 --> 00:08:27,956 Speaker 1: papers and poems written, ringing round the board till it's June. 129 00:08:28,156 --> 00:08:31,636 Speaker 1: George graduates and he and Anne get married. It's the 130 00:08:31,676 --> 00:08:36,796 Speaker 1: summer of nineteen seventy. They decided to take a trip 131 00:08:36,796 --> 00:08:38,836 Speaker 1: around the country just to see where and who they 132 00:08:38,836 --> 00:08:41,676 Speaker 1: wanted to be. George comes from a family of doctors 133 00:08:41,676 --> 00:08:44,556 Speaker 1: and academics and always figured he'd be a professor, but 134 00:08:44,796 --> 00:08:47,716 Speaker 1: plans change. Anne had been working as a cleaner, and 135 00:08:47,756 --> 00:08:50,596 Speaker 1: they had saved up a thousand dollars. They loaded up 136 00:08:50,596 --> 00:08:54,596 Speaker 1: George's purple Dodge pickup truck and set off. They drove 137 00:08:54,596 --> 00:08:57,276 Speaker 1: through thirty seven states over the course of ten months. 138 00:08:57,716 --> 00:09:00,676 Speaker 1: As they wandered, they got fascinated by a new movement 139 00:09:00,876 --> 00:09:05,316 Speaker 1: of going back to the land. We had gotten interested 140 00:09:05,556 --> 00:09:09,996 Speaker 1: in the dream to the degree that we decided, well, 141 00:09:10,836 --> 00:09:13,436 Speaker 1: neither one of us has ever lived in the country, 142 00:09:14,996 --> 00:09:18,516 Speaker 1: maybe we want to do that. In the nineteen seventies, 143 00:09:18,516 --> 00:09:21,716 Speaker 1: the environmental movement was coming of age. The First Earth Day, 144 00:09:21,836 --> 00:09:25,116 Speaker 1: the founding of the EPA, the most substantial legislation to 145 00:09:25,156 --> 00:09:28,116 Speaker 1: protect our natural environment, came all in a rush. You 146 00:09:28,236 --> 00:09:31,236 Speaker 1: heard all about that in the last episode. People weren't 147 00:09:31,276 --> 00:09:33,316 Speaker 1: just worried about what we put into our rivers and air, 148 00:09:33,356 --> 00:09:36,516 Speaker 1: though they were worried about what we put into our bodies. 149 00:09:36,916 --> 00:09:39,916 Speaker 1: I think that a very great date deal of sickness 150 00:09:40,116 --> 00:09:43,396 Speaker 1: is because of the refined foods. I think we're literally 151 00:09:43,396 --> 00:09:45,996 Speaker 1: at the mercy of the people who take all the 152 00:09:46,076 --> 00:09:47,876 Speaker 1: minerals and vitamins out of the sugar and out of 153 00:09:47,876 --> 00:09:51,756 Speaker 1: the flower. The organic food movement took off. Between that 154 00:09:51,876 --> 00:09:54,316 Speaker 1: and the mounting feeling that we were killing the earth, 155 00:09:54,716 --> 00:09:58,476 Speaker 1: a lot of people, especially young white college students, started 156 00:09:58,476 --> 00:10:02,636 Speaker 1: looking for a way to reconnect in our uncertain nuclear future. 157 00:10:03,316 --> 00:10:07,676 Speaker 1: The homesteading movement is once again gaining ground. They wanted 158 00:10:07,716 --> 00:10:10,676 Speaker 1: to be self sufficient. They read magazines like Mother Earth 159 00:10:10,716 --> 00:10:14,356 Speaker 1: News and Whole Earth Catalog, books like Buckminster Fuller's Operating 160 00:10:14,396 --> 00:10:17,396 Speaker 1: Manual for Spaceship Earth and Adele Davis's Let's Get Well. 161 00:10:17,836 --> 00:10:20,636 Speaker 1: They ate vegetables raw from their gardens and cooked gypsy 162 00:10:20,676 --> 00:10:23,636 Speaker 1: soup from the Moosewood cook Book. They sang songs like 163 00:10:23,716 --> 00:10:29,516 Speaker 1: Joni Mitchell's Woodstock, I'm gonna cambach on the lane, I'm 164 00:10:29,516 --> 00:10:37,876 Speaker 1: gonna try and get NHow. Americans have been going back 165 00:10:37,916 --> 00:10:41,236 Speaker 1: to the land since the nineteenth century, but those early 166 00:10:41,276 --> 00:10:45,436 Speaker 1: movements were typically a response to economic crises. The settlers 167 00:10:45,436 --> 00:10:49,996 Speaker 1: were romantic but also practical, living off the land subsistence farming. 168 00:10:50,396 --> 00:10:52,436 Speaker 1: That was one way to be sure you wouldn't starve 169 00:10:52,476 --> 00:10:55,156 Speaker 1: when the next panic came. Also, it made for a 170 00:10:55,156 --> 00:10:58,436 Speaker 1: lot of good books, movies, and of course old timey 171 00:10:58,556 --> 00:11:02,716 Speaker 1: radio shows like The Grandbes Green Acres Martha Martha. Let's 172 00:11:02,756 --> 00:11:05,596 Speaker 1: face it, the price of food wouldn't be any problem 173 00:11:05,636 --> 00:11:07,396 Speaker 1: to us if we'd done what I wanted to do 174 00:11:07,476 --> 00:11:10,436 Speaker 1: five years ago and bought a fart. But the nineteen 175 00:11:10,516 --> 00:11:13,596 Speaker 1: seventies back to the Land movement was different. It wasn't 176 00:11:13,596 --> 00:11:16,276 Speaker 1: a response to an economic crisis like the Great Depression. 177 00:11:16,596 --> 00:11:19,276 Speaker 1: It was the expression of an ideal. The back to 178 00:11:19,316 --> 00:11:23,196 Speaker 1: the Landers wanted to make things and live in sustainable communities. 179 00:11:23,756 --> 00:11:26,316 Speaker 1: Some people just wanted to live in nature, but George 180 00:11:26,316 --> 00:11:29,076 Speaker 1: and Anne wanted to farm, and all of a sudden 181 00:11:29,476 --> 00:11:33,476 Speaker 1: an opportunity fell into their laps. A friend of Anne's 182 00:11:33,516 --> 00:11:36,916 Speaker 1: parents bought a duck hunting club in Washington State. They 183 00:11:36,956 --> 00:11:40,636 Speaker 1: needed a caretaker the club, not the ducks. Basically, it 184 00:11:40,716 --> 00:11:43,396 Speaker 1: was four rooms, a bathroom, a bedroom, a living room 185 00:11:43,396 --> 00:11:46,396 Speaker 1: in the kitchen. Opened the door the place. It was 186 00:11:46,996 --> 00:11:51,236 Speaker 1: full of dead bugs and mosquitos. The house and the 187 00:11:51,316 --> 00:11:53,876 Speaker 1: duck club was a shit hole, and it was hot, 188 00:11:53,916 --> 00:11:56,716 Speaker 1: and it was miserable. There's really no other way to 189 00:11:56,796 --> 00:12:00,076 Speaker 1: describe it. Were like, what the hell, We'll take it. 190 00:12:00,516 --> 00:12:02,756 Speaker 1: The club was in a town called Toppenish in the 191 00:12:02,836 --> 00:12:06,156 Speaker 1: Yakima Valley. The Yakima is some of the most fertile 192 00:12:06,156 --> 00:12:08,996 Speaker 1: farmland in the United States. It can grow a spare 193 00:12:09,196 --> 00:12:13,956 Speaker 1: us apples, hey, corn, wheat, barley, mint, grapes, peaches, pears, 194 00:12:14,076 --> 00:12:17,156 Speaker 1: and cherries. The kind of land it takes eons to make, 195 00:12:17,716 --> 00:12:20,956 Speaker 1: worn by day and cool in the evening with plentiful sunshine. 196 00:12:21,196 --> 00:12:24,796 Speaker 1: An American Eden, George and Anne started a garden off 197 00:12:24,796 --> 00:12:27,116 Speaker 1: the shack near the creek and got jobs in town. 198 00:12:27,436 --> 00:12:30,236 Speaker 1: George is a teacher Anne as a bank teller. On 199 00:12:30,276 --> 00:12:32,836 Speaker 1: the weekends, George helped out at a cattle ranch and 200 00:12:32,916 --> 00:12:36,436 Speaker 1: learned about taking care of livestock and riding horses. There 201 00:12:36,516 --> 00:12:40,516 Speaker 1: was something that struck a chord inside me that said, 202 00:12:40,556 --> 00:12:44,156 Speaker 1: this makes sense. Well, it's like you eat something new 203 00:12:44,236 --> 00:12:48,916 Speaker 1: and it just boy, that was really good. He left 204 00:12:48,956 --> 00:12:51,036 Speaker 1: his teaching job to work more with the farmers in 205 00:12:51,036 --> 00:12:54,516 Speaker 1: the valley, learning all he could about farming. Anne stayed 206 00:12:54,516 --> 00:12:56,916 Speaker 1: on at the bank. They got cattle and ate the 207 00:12:56,916 --> 00:13:00,796 Speaker 1: food they grew from their garden. We not only like it, 208 00:13:00,996 --> 00:13:04,116 Speaker 1: but we're doing well at it. I think this is 209 00:13:04,156 --> 00:13:07,316 Speaker 1: how we want to live. I came home one day 210 00:13:07,396 --> 00:13:11,836 Speaker 1: from work and George said, A found a farm. It 211 00:13:11,956 --> 00:13:14,796 Speaker 1: was twenty seven acres in the Yakima Valley on sale 212 00:13:14,836 --> 00:13:19,476 Speaker 1: from an improbably named Widow. Her name was Leifa Fields. 213 00:13:21,236 --> 00:13:24,316 Speaker 1: They bought Lefa's place, and over the years their farm 214 00:13:24,396 --> 00:13:27,836 Speaker 1: did so well. They got bigger and expanded. They had 215 00:13:27,876 --> 00:13:31,156 Speaker 1: walnut trees and apricots in their garden, mint and alfalfa 216 00:13:31,236 --> 00:13:34,356 Speaker 1: in the fields. Their conquered grapes went to Welch's Juice 217 00:13:34,516 --> 00:13:37,636 Speaker 1: and their sweet corn to del Monte's. They worked eighteen 218 00:13:37,676 --> 00:13:40,596 Speaker 1: hours a day, seven days a week, at the farm, 219 00:13:40,716 --> 00:13:43,756 Speaker 1: at the bank, at the feed lot. They were rediscovering 220 00:13:43,796 --> 00:13:45,596 Speaker 1: a whole way of life that was new for them, 221 00:13:45,636 --> 00:13:47,916 Speaker 1: but old hat to a lot of their neighbors, and 222 00:13:47,956 --> 00:13:50,756 Speaker 1: the community helped them find their way. They had their 223 00:13:50,796 --> 00:13:54,156 Speaker 1: first child, a baby boy named Blake, and they were happy. 224 00:13:54,676 --> 00:13:58,876 Speaker 1: And basically since we left the Duck Club, we had 225 00:13:58,876 --> 00:14:01,516 Speaker 1: been on a roll where things were getting better and 226 00:14:01,676 --> 00:14:06,716 Speaker 1: better and better. The early nineteen seventies, those back to 227 00:14:06,756 --> 00:14:10,476 Speaker 1: the land years were amazing for American farmers. I didn't 228 00:14:10,476 --> 00:14:14,316 Speaker 1: know any farmer who had gone broke, gone broke his 229 00:14:14,396 --> 00:14:18,476 Speaker 1: back in the des Bowl era, that stretch of farming prosperity. 230 00:14:18,956 --> 00:14:23,316 Speaker 1: It happened under one man, in particular, Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture, 231 00:14:23,676 --> 00:14:27,876 Speaker 1: Earl Rusty Butts, Indiana born, raised on a farm in 232 00:14:27,876 --> 00:14:31,436 Speaker 1: the nineteen tens. Here's Butts. I don't want to go 233 00:14:31,476 --> 00:14:33,716 Speaker 1: back to the good old days. I only want to 234 00:14:33,716 --> 00:14:37,316 Speaker 1: go forward. Whether Butts was really taking the country forward 235 00:14:37,396 --> 00:14:39,996 Speaker 1: or backwards was something people would come to argue about. 236 00:14:40,276 --> 00:14:43,236 Speaker 1: He was a friend to big agribusiness, also to Republicans. 237 00:14:43,596 --> 00:14:46,236 Speaker 1: He kept a wood carving of two elephants, having sex 238 00:14:46,276 --> 00:14:49,916 Speaker 1: in his office. Why because he said he was trying 239 00:14:49,916 --> 00:14:53,196 Speaker 1: to make Republican voters multiply, and he had a terrible 240 00:14:53,236 --> 00:14:57,436 Speaker 1: sense of humor. In the postwar decades, increasing farm productivity 241 00:14:57,556 --> 00:15:00,156 Speaker 1: had already driven down the number of farms and increased 242 00:15:00,156 --> 00:15:03,276 Speaker 1: their average size. Now Butts wanted to take the trend 243 00:15:03,396 --> 00:15:07,956 Speaker 1: even further. He wanted to supersize American agriculture, and he 244 00:15:08,036 --> 00:15:11,036 Speaker 1: got the chance. In the early nineteen seventies, just as 245 00:15:11,036 --> 00:15:14,356 Speaker 1: George and Anne were buying their first farms, the Soviet 246 00:15:14,436 --> 00:15:16,676 Speaker 1: Union had just gone through a patch of terrible weather. 247 00:15:16,996 --> 00:15:19,276 Speaker 1: If they were going to eat, they needed to import crops. 248 00:15:19,636 --> 00:15:22,396 Speaker 1: The Soviets bought up a quarter of the American harvest, 249 00:15:22,796 --> 00:15:26,676 Speaker 1: billions of dollars in US grain and soybeans. Wheat prices 250 00:15:26,916 --> 00:15:31,276 Speaker 1: rose enormously, farm income hidden all time high. Butts had 251 00:15:31,276 --> 00:15:34,636 Speaker 1: found a global market for American crops. He told farmers 252 00:15:34,716 --> 00:15:38,236 Speaker 1: to get big or get out. Agribusinesses thrilled to the 253 00:15:38,276 --> 00:15:41,756 Speaker 1: spike in demand for their new herbicides, machines and fertilizers. 254 00:15:42,236 --> 00:15:47,076 Speaker 1: Bigger modernized farms meant bigger sales. Our challenge is not 255 00:15:47,316 --> 00:15:50,236 Speaker 1: to go back to morning effacian ways. Our challenge is 256 00:15:50,276 --> 00:15:53,156 Speaker 1: not to put more people back on the land. Our 257 00:15:53,236 --> 00:15:55,796 Speaker 1: challenge is to adapt to the change in situation which 258 00:15:55,836 --> 00:16:03,356 Speaker 1: we find ourselves. Butts's vision was part of the reason 259 00:16:03,476 --> 00:16:07,236 Speaker 1: farming knowledge began to ebb away. The emphasis on efficiency 260 00:16:07,396 --> 00:16:09,876 Speaker 1: of growing as much as you possibly could came at 261 00:16:09,876 --> 00:16:13,836 Speaker 1: the cost of older, more sustainable practices like crop rotation 262 00:16:13,956 --> 00:16:17,876 Speaker 1: and plant diversity. Instead of small amounts of several crops, 263 00:16:18,156 --> 00:16:22,156 Speaker 1: you got thousands of acres of just soybeans, another farm, 264 00:16:22,196 --> 00:16:25,956 Speaker 1: all corn. Butts's vision was not exactly the back to 265 00:16:25,956 --> 00:16:29,556 Speaker 1: the land dream, but George and Anne still benefited. A 266 00:16:29,596 --> 00:16:32,756 Speaker 1: lot of farmers did. At least at first, the value 267 00:16:32,756 --> 00:16:37,076 Speaker 1: of farmland skyrocketed. Farmers were living well, The family farm 268 00:16:37,156 --> 00:16:40,316 Speaker 1: was becoming more like a factory, and the family farmer 269 00:16:40,396 --> 00:16:44,156 Speaker 1: took out loan after loan, uneasy credit to expand, which 270 00:16:44,196 --> 00:16:47,396 Speaker 1: is why when George saw a thousand acre ranch for sale, 271 00:16:47,876 --> 00:16:54,036 Speaker 1: he thought, why not fourteen miles out of town, four 272 00:16:54,076 --> 00:16:57,636 Speaker 1: miles from the next door neighbor, and you can see 273 00:16:57,836 --> 00:17:02,196 Speaker 1: the Milky Way, and it just felt just absolutely right, 274 00:17:02,436 --> 00:17:06,036 Speaker 1: and we said, this is where we want to raise 275 00:17:06,076 --> 00:17:10,396 Speaker 1: our kids. The thousand acre ranch was surrounded by canyons, 276 00:17:11,036 --> 00:17:13,916 Speaker 1: ninety five miles away from their old farm, across the 277 00:17:13,956 --> 00:17:17,916 Speaker 1: Sadus Pass, fringed by timber, off the Cascades Mountains, at 278 00:17:17,916 --> 00:17:20,596 Speaker 1: the breaks of the clicatat river, where the rocky land 279 00:17:20,636 --> 00:17:24,076 Speaker 1: pulls away from the water. They called it the Brake's Ranch. 280 00:17:24,876 --> 00:17:27,876 Speaker 1: The day they saw it, they made an offer. The 281 00:17:27,956 --> 00:17:31,396 Speaker 1: next day they got a call. So the house burned down. 282 00:17:31,916 --> 00:17:37,716 Speaker 1: It is one gone electrical fire. Consider that this place 283 00:17:37,916 --> 00:17:41,036 Speaker 1: is ten times the farm George and Anne have ever worked. 284 00:17:41,556 --> 00:17:44,636 Speaker 1: Consider that the farmers selling it are doing so because 285 00:17:44,636 --> 00:17:48,356 Speaker 1: they've fallen on hard times. And consider that the house 286 00:17:48,436 --> 00:17:51,636 Speaker 1: is now burned down. This I think was a sign 287 00:17:51,676 --> 00:17:54,636 Speaker 1: from the universe about what was to come. George and 288 00:17:54,636 --> 00:17:57,236 Speaker 1: Anne had the chance to fold up the board and 289 00:17:57,356 --> 00:18:00,156 Speaker 1: walk away, but that's no way to play a game. 290 00:18:00,516 --> 00:18:04,116 Speaker 1: And we've been rolling fives and sixes since the day 291 00:18:04,156 --> 00:18:09,036 Speaker 1: we got off the bus. I said, well, let's go 292 00:18:09,236 --> 00:18:13,436 Speaker 1: for the place and we'll build a house. They negotiated 293 00:18:13,436 --> 00:18:16,236 Speaker 1: the price down and bought the land and also fifty 294 00:18:16,276 --> 00:18:18,716 Speaker 1: head of cattle. A neighbor lent them a trailer to 295 00:18:18,756 --> 00:18:21,276 Speaker 1: live in, and George started to solve the whole house 296 00:18:21,276 --> 00:18:24,036 Speaker 1: situation In a very George way. Well, it's like the 297 00:18:24,276 --> 00:18:28,156 Speaker 1: fringe jacket, you know. And there was a contractor in 298 00:18:28,356 --> 00:18:32,996 Speaker 1: Yakima who was actually building two geodesic domes at the time. 299 00:18:33,716 --> 00:18:37,276 Speaker 1: For the uninitiated, a geodesic dome is a structure popular 300 00:18:37,316 --> 00:18:40,716 Speaker 1: in the sixties counterculture, involving lots of triangles fit together 301 00:18:41,076 --> 00:18:43,516 Speaker 1: in the shape of a dome, and you can put 302 00:18:43,556 --> 00:18:46,636 Speaker 1: the walls in tie anywhere you want them because they're 303 00:18:46,676 --> 00:18:49,396 Speaker 1: not holding up the roof. The roof is holding up 304 00:18:49,396 --> 00:18:53,716 Speaker 1: the roof. George was a dreamer. He believed everything could 305 00:18:53,756 --> 00:18:57,436 Speaker 1: be done, and he was right. He was right most 306 00:18:57,436 --> 00:19:01,556 Speaker 1: of the time. They bought the dome Easter weekend of 307 00:19:01,636 --> 00:19:04,236 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six, with their one year old looking on. 308 00:19:04,836 --> 00:19:07,556 Speaker 1: George and Anne put up the forty five foot structure 309 00:19:07,836 --> 00:19:11,596 Speaker 1: triangle by triangle with a bunch of friends. They moved 310 00:19:11,596 --> 00:19:15,516 Speaker 1: into the basement, plywood ceiling, concrete floors, with a drain 311 00:19:15,556 --> 00:19:18,156 Speaker 1: in the middle, a hose to draw water from the spring, 312 00:19:18,676 --> 00:19:22,996 Speaker 1: and absolutely no heat. You talk about back to the land, 313 00:19:24,316 --> 00:19:28,836 Speaker 1: we're back only six years earlier. They've never farmed in 314 00:19:28,876 --> 00:19:32,596 Speaker 1: their lives. Now they own a thousand acres miles from 315 00:19:32,596 --> 00:19:38,996 Speaker 1: the nearest person, surrounded by mountains, spiritually, geographically, financially, they 316 00:19:39,036 --> 00:19:47,876 Speaker 1: were way out there. The trouble with games of chance 317 00:19:48,156 --> 00:19:50,436 Speaker 1: is when they go your way, you think it's all 318 00:19:50,476 --> 00:19:53,916 Speaker 1: about you. You're lucky, or you're special, you've got the 319 00:19:53,956 --> 00:19:56,396 Speaker 1: hot hand or the mightas touch. But if you roll 320 00:19:56,476 --> 00:19:59,716 Speaker 1: the dice often enough, your average moves towards the middle, 321 00:20:00,236 --> 00:20:04,956 Speaker 1: and if you've started high, you're gonna get laid low. Well. 322 00:20:05,996 --> 00:20:09,596 Speaker 1: All of a sudden, a place that normally gets five 323 00:20:09,676 --> 00:20:14,316 Speaker 1: to thirty inches of rain, we got four inches of rain. 324 00:20:15,316 --> 00:20:18,316 Speaker 1: There wasn't enough hay to feed the cows, and instead 325 00:20:18,356 --> 00:20:21,436 Speaker 1: of thirty five bushels of wheat per acre, they made ten. 326 00:20:22,316 --> 00:20:25,516 Speaker 1: It was nineteen seventy seven. Something like this was happening 327 00:20:25,516 --> 00:20:30,036 Speaker 1: to farmers across America. Prices were down, costa rising with inflation, 328 00:20:30,476 --> 00:20:32,916 Speaker 1: and farmers were having to take on more and more 329 00:20:32,996 --> 00:20:36,676 Speaker 1: debt just to survive. In the pit of my stomach, 330 00:20:36,756 --> 00:20:41,476 Speaker 1: the bottom is falling out. They had their second child, 331 00:20:41,716 --> 00:20:45,956 Speaker 1: a boy named David, and so year seventy nine kicks in. 332 00:20:47,476 --> 00:20:51,436 Speaker 1: We get two and a half inches of rain. Disaster. 333 00:20:52,316 --> 00:20:56,236 Speaker 1: The crop failed, the farm was failing. Anne took a 334 00:20:56,316 --> 00:20:59,196 Speaker 1: job far out from the ranch and things were going 335 00:20:59,196 --> 00:21:02,596 Speaker 1: badly for everyone. George could sense it in the local 336 00:21:02,676 --> 00:21:06,196 Speaker 1: store at the feed lot. But the middle of May 337 00:21:07,396 --> 00:21:10,916 Speaker 1: and she gets out of there, and I've just come 338 00:21:10,956 --> 00:21:16,876 Speaker 1: in for dinner, and she lets the kids loose in 339 00:21:16,956 --> 00:21:20,156 Speaker 1: their room, and she comes up to me and she says, Honey, 340 00:21:21,556 --> 00:21:28,116 Speaker 1: I'm pregnant again. We both knew that it was a 341 00:21:28,156 --> 00:21:32,156 Speaker 1: slim chance. We were staying that this. We were gonna 342 00:21:32,156 --> 00:21:34,356 Speaker 1: have to admit the experiment failed and we were gonna 343 00:21:34,396 --> 00:21:38,796 Speaker 1: have to give it up. Anne and George owed more 344 00:21:38,836 --> 00:21:41,116 Speaker 1: in interest on their debts than they could make in 345 00:21:41,156 --> 00:21:44,436 Speaker 1: a year. They were living in an unfinished house with 346 00:21:44,476 --> 00:21:48,036 Speaker 1: two kids and a third on the way. Spring turned 347 00:21:48,076 --> 00:21:50,076 Speaker 1: to summer and it was time to cut the hay. 348 00:21:50,916 --> 00:21:53,316 Speaker 1: George bailed by moonlight when the duke came up and 349 00:21:53,316 --> 00:21:55,676 Speaker 1: the dried out crop had a chance of sticking together. 350 00:21:56,636 --> 00:22:00,436 Speaker 1: On July seventh, nineteen seventy nine, he got up at 351 00:22:00,476 --> 00:22:04,396 Speaker 1: three am and stepped outside. There's no other lights other 352 00:22:04,436 --> 00:22:09,396 Speaker 1: than starlight above and the lights of my tractor. I'm 353 00:22:09,436 --> 00:22:17,916 Speaker 1: as as alone as a man can be, crushing pressures, 354 00:22:19,276 --> 00:22:24,796 Speaker 1: no way out kind of pressures. I am at fault 355 00:22:24,836 --> 00:22:31,316 Speaker 1: for this disaster. What what can I do? And for 356 00:22:31,436 --> 00:22:37,476 Speaker 1: some strange reason, I have no idea how or why 357 00:22:37,676 --> 00:22:43,236 Speaker 1: this blanked into my head. This problem I'm in would 358 00:22:43,236 --> 00:22:45,916 Speaker 1: make this hell of a subject for a board game. 359 00:22:47,276 --> 00:22:54,716 Speaker 1: We'll be right back. It's nineteen seventy nine. Family farms 360 00:22:54,716 --> 00:22:58,556 Speaker 1: across America are in trouble. One farmer in particular is 361 00:22:58,596 --> 00:23:02,796 Speaker 1: taking it pretty hard. Crop prices are just total shit. 362 00:23:03,596 --> 00:23:08,596 Speaker 1: George Robacker, farmer in trouble, crushing debt, failing farm. Baby 363 00:23:08,596 --> 00:23:11,076 Speaker 1: on the way. It's three am, and he's out in 364 00:23:11,076 --> 00:23:15,356 Speaker 1: the field, not asleep, but still dreaming about a board game. 365 00:23:16,716 --> 00:23:20,876 Speaker 1: I finally get done bailing. Hey, eat breakfast, Go down 366 00:23:20,876 --> 00:23:23,476 Speaker 1: in the basement, get a scrap of sheet rock and 367 00:23:23,596 --> 00:23:29,396 Speaker 1: a framing square, and draw myself a game board picture. 368 00:23:29,396 --> 00:23:32,836 Speaker 1: George alone in the basement of his geodesic dome, surrounded 369 00:23:32,876 --> 00:23:36,476 Speaker 1: by thousands of acres of failing farmland, scratching out a 370 00:23:36,476 --> 00:23:39,476 Speaker 1: board game on a loose piece of sheet rock. There 371 00:23:39,556 --> 00:23:43,236 Speaker 1: is a fine line between genius and insanity, or sometimes 372 00:23:43,516 --> 00:23:47,036 Speaker 1: no line at all, And it occurs to me that 373 00:23:47,516 --> 00:23:53,076 Speaker 1: those four sides could beat the seasons. Okay, that makes sense. 374 00:23:53,716 --> 00:23:57,116 Speaker 1: The sun is high overhead now, sapping the last moisture 375 00:23:57,116 --> 00:23:59,796 Speaker 1: from the alf Alpha. There are cows to feed, work 376 00:23:59,836 --> 00:24:02,996 Speaker 1: to do, but George is riding the lightning. He can't 377 00:24:03,036 --> 00:24:07,076 Speaker 1: stop inventing farmer figurines. Debt from the bank the Yakima 378 00:24:07,116 --> 00:24:11,116 Speaker 1: Valley at the center a board game about how miserable 379 00:24:11,156 --> 00:24:14,956 Speaker 1: it is to be a farmer. I didn't go back 380 00:24:14,956 --> 00:24:19,516 Speaker 1: out to the field, I didn't eat lunch. And and 381 00:24:19,796 --> 00:24:23,516 Speaker 1: comes home and it's pretty warm, the kids are fried, 382 00:24:24,276 --> 00:24:27,596 Speaker 1: and she walks in the door, and I just literally 383 00:24:27,636 --> 00:24:30,756 Speaker 1: can't wait for the kids to get out of the 384 00:24:30,796 --> 00:24:35,156 Speaker 1: way to tell her, I've just discovered the trap door 385 00:24:35,156 --> 00:24:37,916 Speaker 1: the way out of this mess. It had just come 386 00:24:38,116 --> 00:24:42,236 Speaker 1: like full out of his head. Here was this game, 387 00:24:42,356 --> 00:24:45,276 Speaker 1: and we got to do this, you know, this is 388 00:24:45,316 --> 00:24:48,876 Speaker 1: what's what's gonna save us. And she gave me a 389 00:24:48,956 --> 00:24:54,756 Speaker 1: look like, are you frigging crazy? A board game. One 390 00:24:55,036 --> 00:24:58,596 Speaker 1: crazy thing that's gonna see the other crazy thing. The 391 00:24:58,676 --> 00:25:01,316 Speaker 1: game works a bit like Monopoly. It starts when you 392 00:25:01,356 --> 00:25:04,276 Speaker 1: inherent land from your grandfather. Ten acres of hay and 393 00:25:04,356 --> 00:25:07,236 Speaker 1: ten acres of wheat, each represented by a little vinyl 394 00:25:07,316 --> 00:25:09,596 Speaker 1: stamp with a bale of hay or a wheat on it. 395 00:25:10,196 --> 00:25:12,236 Speaker 1: There are six farms in the center of the board, 396 00:25:12,476 --> 00:25:14,916 Speaker 1: each named after a real place in the Yakima Valley, 397 00:25:15,076 --> 00:25:17,356 Speaker 1: and you've got one of them. Around the edge of 398 00:25:17,396 --> 00:25:21,196 Speaker 1: the board is the calendar ear blocked off by harvest times, 399 00:25:21,236 --> 00:25:24,716 Speaker 1: your hay cuttings, cherry harvest, livestock sales, and so on. 400 00:25:25,316 --> 00:25:27,916 Speaker 1: You begin with five thousand dollars in debt with a 401 00:25:27,956 --> 00:25:31,636 Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars line of credit. The goal is to 402 00:25:31,676 --> 00:25:33,796 Speaker 1: make enough on your farm that you can quit your 403 00:25:33,876 --> 00:25:36,316 Speaker 1: job in town, which at the start is the only 404 00:25:36,316 --> 00:25:40,476 Speaker 1: way you're staying afloat. It is a punishing game. Typically 405 00:25:40,556 --> 00:25:43,596 Speaker 1: your debt only gets worse in the winter. You can 406 00:25:43,636 --> 00:25:47,316 Speaker 1: buy more seed or livestock or equipment, but it almost 407 00:25:47,356 --> 00:25:49,596 Speaker 1: always costs more than the cash you have on hand, 408 00:25:50,076 --> 00:25:53,276 Speaker 1: so you have to borrow and eventually either pay it 409 00:25:53,356 --> 00:25:57,356 Speaker 1: back or declare bankruptcy. But that was farming. Had to 410 00:25:57,396 --> 00:25:59,796 Speaker 1: have the debt. It is punishing. It's not fun all 411 00:25:59,836 --> 00:26:03,356 Speaker 1: the time, so we had to do balance make it 412 00:26:03,396 --> 00:26:07,436 Speaker 1: be possible. They spent every night working out the mechanism 413 00:26:07,516 --> 00:26:10,916 Speaker 1: of the game, playing it again and again. They put 414 00:26:10,956 --> 00:26:14,156 Speaker 1: everything they'd learned about farming into it. In harvest seasons, 415 00:26:14,316 --> 00:26:16,476 Speaker 1: you roll the dice to see how good your crop is, 416 00:26:16,916 --> 00:26:19,796 Speaker 1: check the harvest rate chart for prices per acre, and 417 00:26:19,836 --> 00:26:22,556 Speaker 1: then pull an operating expense card that tells you how 418 00:26:22,636 --> 00:26:26,196 Speaker 1: much it's going to cost to harvest that crop. Sometimes 419 00:26:26,396 --> 00:26:29,116 Speaker 1: you land on a farmer's fate square and you have 420 00:26:29,156 --> 00:26:31,196 Speaker 1: to draw a card to see how your lux breaking. 421 00:26:31,716 --> 00:26:36,756 Speaker 1: Often something bad happens, tractor malfunction, grain embargo irs, garnishing 422 00:26:36,756 --> 00:26:40,716 Speaker 1: your wages, mount Saint Helen's erupting. All these things that 423 00:26:40,756 --> 00:26:42,876 Speaker 1: could happen to you in the game, all of them 424 00:26:42,876 --> 00:26:45,196 Speaker 1: had happened to George, Anne or one of their friends 425 00:26:45,196 --> 00:26:48,636 Speaker 1: at some point. It's a perfect model of the family farm. 426 00:26:49,156 --> 00:26:52,276 Speaker 1: It's also the story of their lives. But just like 427 00:26:52,316 --> 00:26:55,556 Speaker 1: when they got into farming, George and Anne had absolutely 428 00:26:55,956 --> 00:26:59,836 Speaker 1: no idea how to manufacture a board game. And at 429 00:26:59,876 --> 00:27:04,156 Speaker 1: the time we just thought we needed a printer. We 430 00:27:04,276 --> 00:27:06,556 Speaker 1: just thought we needed a box make your role. It 431 00:27:06,636 --> 00:27:08,996 Speaker 1: turned out nearly every part of the game needed to 432 00:27:08,996 --> 00:27:13,156 Speaker 1: be manufactured by a specialist. The folding cardboard came from 433 00:27:13,156 --> 00:27:16,596 Speaker 1: Los Angeles, the acreage stamps from New Jersey, the dice 434 00:27:16,676 --> 00:27:19,836 Speaker 1: from Rhode Island. One company prints the money, a different 435 00:27:19,836 --> 00:27:22,596 Speaker 1: one makes the gameboard art and another makes the board backing, 436 00:27:22,916 --> 00:27:25,236 Speaker 1: and the family still had to cut out each individual 437 00:27:25,276 --> 00:27:28,196 Speaker 1: play dollar in their basement, and our four year old 438 00:27:28,236 --> 00:27:33,516 Speaker 1: would put a rubber band around them for us. It's 439 00:27:33,556 --> 00:27:37,516 Speaker 1: August nineteen seventy nine. As George worked on piecing the 440 00:27:37,516 --> 00:27:41,236 Speaker 1: game's supply chain together, farmers around the country were sounding 441 00:27:41,236 --> 00:27:45,396 Speaker 1: the alarm about a coming crisis and agriculture. The tractors 442 00:27:45,396 --> 00:27:49,716 Speaker 1: are traveling in a caravan, honking horns, waving flags, and 443 00:27:49,836 --> 00:27:52,996 Speaker 1: sporting posters in an attempt to gather more support for 444 00:27:53,116 --> 00:27:57,956 Speaker 1: farmers across the country. Farmers drove their tractors to Washington, 445 00:27:58,036 --> 00:28:01,676 Speaker 1: DC that year to protest falling prices and rising costs. 446 00:28:01,996 --> 00:28:05,356 Speaker 1: They called it a tractorcade. Most farmers were facing a 447 00:28:05,436 --> 00:28:09,956 Speaker 1: version of George's problem. They were overleveraged, underpaid, and unable 448 00:28:09,956 --> 00:28:13,356 Speaker 1: to explain the complexities of their situation to voters who 449 00:28:13,436 --> 00:28:16,556 Speaker 1: mainly cared about keeping the price of groceries down. The 450 00:28:16,676 --> 00:28:21,476 Speaker 1: situation was only getting worse all the while George was 451 00:28:21,476 --> 00:28:25,476 Speaker 1: building his own lifeboat. It's September. If George and Anne 452 00:28:25,476 --> 00:28:28,036 Speaker 1: were going to make any money, they needed to go big, 453 00:28:28,836 --> 00:28:31,716 Speaker 1: so they sold half their Cows took out a loan 454 00:28:32,436 --> 00:28:35,996 Speaker 1: in order to run of ten thousand games. When we 455 00:28:36,076 --> 00:28:38,596 Speaker 1: say we met the ranch on it, we did board 456 00:28:38,596 --> 00:28:42,676 Speaker 1: games sell best at Christmas. December was only three months away. 457 00:28:43,076 --> 00:28:45,676 Speaker 1: Anne was due at the end of November. The middle 458 00:28:45,676 --> 00:28:48,636 Speaker 1: of September turns into the end of September, and the 459 00:28:48,756 --> 00:28:52,836 Speaker 1: end of September turns into October. But making the game 460 00:28:52,916 --> 00:28:56,116 Speaker 1: is only half the work sewing without reaping. What are 461 00:28:56,156 --> 00:29:00,236 Speaker 1: the questions, of course, when you're producing ten thousand copies 462 00:29:00,276 --> 00:29:02,396 Speaker 1: of a board game is how do you sell the 463 00:29:02,556 --> 00:29:06,916 Speaker 1: dams it? In case you hadn't noticed, George is a 464 00:29:06,956 --> 00:29:09,956 Speaker 1: born salesman. He sent a letter hitching the game to 465 00:29:10,036 --> 00:29:13,836 Speaker 1: President Jimmy Carter. Three weeks after I said the letter, 466 00:29:13,956 --> 00:29:18,396 Speaker 1: I got a mimiograph letter from underling of an underlan 467 00:29:18,556 --> 00:29:22,396 Speaker 1: saying essentially, thank you for whatever you sent to the 468 00:29:22,436 --> 00:29:26,556 Speaker 1: White House. Have a nice day a bum roll. But meanwhile, 469 00:29:26,836 --> 00:29:30,196 Speaker 1: George has started writing ads for farm magazines with information 470 00:29:30,236 --> 00:29:32,516 Speaker 1: about how to order the game, and the orders started 471 00:29:32,516 --> 00:29:36,436 Speaker 1: to trickle in. And then George had an idea for 472 00:29:36,556 --> 00:29:41,716 Speaker 1: a Hail Mary Hallo Americans. This is Paul Harvey, stand 473 00:29:41,716 --> 00:29:45,316 Speaker 1: behype on you. Paul Harvey was a radio broadcaster who 474 00:29:45,396 --> 00:29:50,716 Speaker 1: was especially popular among farmers. Everybody listened to him on tractors, trucks, 475 00:29:50,756 --> 00:29:54,956 Speaker 1: and bus radios. Probably there is no radio program American 476 00:29:54,996 --> 00:29:58,156 Speaker 1: cattle have heard more of. George dashed off a letter 477 00:29:58,156 --> 00:30:00,596 Speaker 1: to Harvey and slipped in a copy of an article 478 00:30:00,636 --> 00:30:03,796 Speaker 1: about the game from a local newspaper. The days passed, 479 00:30:04,276 --> 00:30:08,836 Speaker 1: and then miraculously, Paul Harvey talked about it on his show. 480 00:30:09,996 --> 00:30:12,556 Speaker 1: Harvey's archives are a bit of a shambles, so I 481 00:30:12,556 --> 00:30:15,676 Speaker 1: couldn't find the broadcast to confirm for myself. George and 482 00:30:15,676 --> 00:30:18,556 Speaker 1: Anne didn't hear it directly either. They found out about it, 483 00:30:18,596 --> 00:30:21,956 Speaker 1: they said, because all of a sudden their games started 484 00:30:21,956 --> 00:30:25,076 Speaker 1: to sell de lurs, and Western Farmers said that Paul 485 00:30:25,156 --> 00:30:28,836 Speaker 1: Harvey spoke about it, and so they all want one 486 00:30:28,876 --> 00:30:32,756 Speaker 1: in their store. Western Farmers Association was a big chain 487 00:30:32,836 --> 00:30:35,636 Speaker 1: of farm stores. It was late November and the game 488 00:30:35,716 --> 00:30:38,716 Speaker 1: was moving. George hitched a horse trailer to his pickup 489 00:30:38,796 --> 00:30:41,236 Speaker 1: and loaded it up with games to bring to the stores. 490 00:30:42,116 --> 00:30:46,676 Speaker 1: That Saturday. Anne went into labor Well. Laura had the 491 00:30:47,116 --> 00:30:51,756 Speaker 1: good sense and the courtesy to hold up until we 492 00:30:51,876 --> 00:30:54,996 Speaker 1: got the lid on the box and Laura was born 493 00:30:55,036 --> 00:30:59,636 Speaker 1: at home Sunday night at one thirty am. Meanwhile, word 494 00:30:59,636 --> 00:31:01,956 Speaker 1: of the game had begun to spread through the Grange 495 00:31:02,036 --> 00:31:05,436 Speaker 1: Halls farm magazines, even a story in the Washington Post 496 00:31:05,556 --> 00:31:08,796 Speaker 1: just weeks later. Within six weeks we had sold seventh 497 00:31:09,476 --> 00:31:12,516 Speaker 1: up to ten thousand copies. In the nick of time, 498 00:31:12,876 --> 00:31:15,276 Speaker 1: it looked like George and Ann were going to save 499 00:31:15,316 --> 00:31:26,756 Speaker 1: their farm. But that's after the break. In January of 500 00:31:26,836 --> 00:31:29,796 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, the Farming game was starting to take off. 501 00:31:30,476 --> 00:31:33,476 Speaker 1: People magazine wrote it up. Anne and George started a 502 00:31:33,516 --> 00:31:36,836 Speaker 1: company called the Weekend Farmer Company to manage it. But 503 00:31:36,916 --> 00:31:39,396 Speaker 1: they needed this game to be more than a passing fad. 504 00:31:39,756 --> 00:31:42,116 Speaker 1: They needed it to pay for itself and help them 505 00:31:42,156 --> 00:31:45,916 Speaker 1: save their farm. So George worked up a new sales strategy. 506 00:31:46,636 --> 00:31:51,196 Speaker 1: In the wintertime, there are farm supply shows all over 507 00:31:51,516 --> 00:31:56,116 Speaker 1: the United States where farmers go to kick the tires 508 00:31:56,156 --> 00:32:00,316 Speaker 1: on the new tractor whatnot. He decided to tour the 509 00:32:00,356 --> 00:32:03,436 Speaker 1: farm shows selling the game. They bought an old fifteen 510 00:32:03,476 --> 00:32:06,436 Speaker 1: passenger Dodge van and took out all the seats. If 511 00:32:06,436 --> 00:32:09,516 Speaker 1: you packed it to the roof, it held twelve hundred games. 512 00:32:10,116 --> 00:32:13,396 Speaker 1: George hit the road and so what I would do 513 00:32:13,556 --> 00:32:17,876 Speaker 1: is I'm headed to Missoula, Montana, and I stop in 514 00:32:18,076 --> 00:32:21,516 Speaker 1: every little town on the way there. In little towns, 515 00:32:22,636 --> 00:32:25,876 Speaker 1: the people that manage the stores or did at that time, 516 00:32:25,956 --> 00:32:27,876 Speaker 1: or the people that owned the stores, and you could 517 00:32:27,916 --> 00:32:30,756 Speaker 1: walk in the front door and within a minute and 518 00:32:30,756 --> 00:32:33,836 Speaker 1: a half be talking to the owner and find out 519 00:32:33,876 --> 00:32:37,396 Speaker 1: if you could sell the game to the guy or not, 520 00:32:37,676 --> 00:32:41,316 Speaker 1: and if not, you're back on the road five minutes later. 521 00:32:41,996 --> 00:32:44,756 Speaker 1: This was how the Farming Game found its true audience, 522 00:32:44,996 --> 00:32:47,796 Speaker 1: the die hards. Somebody would play with a friend and 523 00:32:47,796 --> 00:32:51,116 Speaker 1: then that friend would order a copy. Eventually, George and 524 00:32:51,156 --> 00:32:53,996 Speaker 1: Anne set up an eight hundred number. Soon a UPS 525 00:32:54,116 --> 00:32:56,556 Speaker 1: driver was coming out to the farm most days, past 526 00:32:56,636 --> 00:32:59,356 Speaker 1: the sign reading Primitive Road to pick up shipments of 527 00:32:59,396 --> 00:33:02,636 Speaker 1: the Farming Game. In the summer, he'd bring the kids popsicles. 528 00:33:02,956 --> 00:33:05,676 Speaker 1: The eight hundred number patched straight into the house and 529 00:33:05,716 --> 00:33:08,756 Speaker 1: the phone rang off the hook. The phone was beside 530 00:33:08,756 --> 00:33:12,116 Speaker 1: our so we answered it in the middle of the night. 531 00:33:12,356 --> 00:33:16,356 Speaker 1: So sometimes you're talking the phone. Boy. It's a good 532 00:33:16,356 --> 00:33:19,636 Speaker 1: thing you cannot see. There's no video that goes with 533 00:33:19,796 --> 00:33:23,436 Speaker 1: this phone. George kept on the road to turn up 534 00:33:23,476 --> 00:33:26,356 Speaker 1: new business, but as he drove around the country games 535 00:33:26,356 --> 00:33:31,916 Speaker 1: in tow Agriculture had fallen into a death spiral. While 536 00:33:31,956 --> 00:33:35,396 Speaker 1: farmers were growing on credit in the nineteen seventies, inflation 537 00:33:35,516 --> 00:33:38,756 Speaker 1: was rising too, and the Federal Reserve decided to jack 538 00:33:38,836 --> 00:33:42,676 Speaker 1: up interest rates to slow it down. Suddenly banks started 539 00:33:42,716 --> 00:33:45,516 Speaker 1: calling in the loans they'd been so confident in years earlier, 540 00:33:45,836 --> 00:33:48,956 Speaker 1: and the farmers couldn't pay. Within the span of just 541 00:33:48,996 --> 00:33:52,556 Speaker 1: a couple of years, family farm income dropped by more 542 00:33:52,596 --> 00:33:56,476 Speaker 1: than eighty percent. In nineteen eighty one, the USDA said 543 00:33:56,516 --> 00:33:59,436 Speaker 1: about half the farmers in the country would eventually be 544 00:33:59,516 --> 00:34:02,636 Speaker 1: driven from the land. But it wasn't just the farms. 545 00:34:03,156 --> 00:34:06,396 Speaker 1: When they went all the small local businesses that sold 546 00:34:06,436 --> 00:34:08,996 Speaker 1: them seeds for the fields and feed for their livestock, 547 00:34:09,196 --> 00:34:12,076 Speaker 1: an ice cream and candy for their kids. They began 548 00:34:12,116 --> 00:34:17,516 Speaker 1: to close. Two rural communities and family farms were falling apart. 549 00:34:18,316 --> 00:34:22,676 Speaker 1: We had a nationwide economic crisis, which at the very 550 00:34:22,756 --> 00:34:28,196 Speaker 1: same time was a nationwide family crisis, because at that 551 00:34:28,316 --> 00:34:34,236 Speaker 1: time every farm in the United States had some family 552 00:34:35,116 --> 00:34:39,676 Speaker 1: roots two or three or four five generations back. So 553 00:34:40,916 --> 00:34:44,636 Speaker 1: you inherit this from granddad, and you're the dumpsome bitch 554 00:34:44,676 --> 00:34:48,116 Speaker 1: who lost it. A lot of that land was bought 555 00:34:48,116 --> 00:34:52,156 Speaker 1: by farm management companies corporations. We sometimes hire the broke 556 00:34:52,196 --> 00:34:55,556 Speaker 1: farmers from the same farms back to work it. However 557 00:34:55,596 --> 00:34:57,796 Speaker 1: bad it was for white farmers, it was worse for 558 00:34:57,876 --> 00:35:02,636 Speaker 1: black farmers. They lost their land ten times faster. More 559 00:35:02,676 --> 00:35:05,996 Speaker 1: than half a million people left rural America in a 560 00:35:06,076 --> 00:35:10,476 Speaker 1: single year. Losing a job as one thing. Losing a 561 00:35:10,516 --> 00:35:15,556 Speaker 1: farm is losing everything. It looked like death. And when 562 00:35:15,596 --> 00:35:19,076 Speaker 1: you bury the farm, a big part of your heart, 563 00:35:19,116 --> 00:35:22,196 Speaker 1: a big part of who you are about, big part 564 00:35:22,236 --> 00:35:33,316 Speaker 1: of who your family is, is dead. But it's I 565 00:35:33,436 --> 00:35:37,156 Speaker 1: can't go any deeper into that. The situation with bad 566 00:35:37,276 --> 00:35:40,236 Speaker 1: loans and low prices has gotten so bad the nation's 567 00:35:40,316 --> 00:35:43,596 Speaker 1: largest source of farm loans need big help and fast. 568 00:35:43,836 --> 00:35:47,756 Speaker 1: Ninety three thousand mid sized US farms are deeply in 569 00:35:47,836 --> 00:35:50,316 Speaker 1: debt and are on the verge of going broken. I 570 00:35:50,316 --> 00:35:54,796 Speaker 1: had a gun in the pickup. The thoughts that entered 571 00:35:54,836 --> 00:35:59,196 Speaker 1: my mind that maybe my family was better off with 572 00:35:59,236 --> 00:36:05,916 Speaker 1: me gone alive. It was terrible. But as the crisis 573 00:36:05,956 --> 00:36:09,076 Speaker 1: worse than, the farming game became a kind of advert 574 00:36:09,116 --> 00:36:12,076 Speaker 1: becacy tool and a way for farm families to find 575 00:36:12,156 --> 00:36:15,796 Speaker 1: some relief from their troubles. A North Dakota mental health 576 00:36:15,836 --> 00:36:18,716 Speaker 1: program used the game to help farmers relieve stress and 577 00:36:18,756 --> 00:36:22,796 Speaker 1: talk about their problems it while it became a body 578 00:36:22,796 --> 00:36:26,156 Speaker 1: of knowledge, a chronicle of a disappearing way of life, 579 00:36:27,116 --> 00:36:31,676 Speaker 1: but maybe also a way to save it. A lady 580 00:36:31,676 --> 00:36:35,276 Speaker 1: in southern California whose family was in the citrus business, 581 00:36:36,196 --> 00:36:39,556 Speaker 1: was given the Farming Game for Christmas, and when she 582 00:36:39,756 --> 00:36:44,916 Speaker 1: played it immediately she saw the ability to teach the 583 00:36:44,916 --> 00:36:50,876 Speaker 1: basic economics of farming and just the social superstructure in 584 00:36:50,916 --> 00:36:55,316 Speaker 1: which the business is set. The lady worked for an 585 00:36:55,316 --> 00:36:59,556 Speaker 1: advocacy group for women in agriculture. In the mid nineteen eighties, 586 00:36:59,716 --> 00:37:02,316 Speaker 1: they decided the country needed to know about the game. 587 00:37:02,916 --> 00:37:05,516 Speaker 1: They flooded the halls of the Capitol with hundreds of 588 00:37:05,556 --> 00:37:09,556 Speaker 1: board games, one for each member of Congress, five and 589 00:37:09,636 --> 00:37:12,756 Speaker 1: thirty five games in all, trying to explain what was 590 00:37:12,836 --> 00:37:17,316 Speaker 1: happening to farmers. The board game didn't get any laws passed, 591 00:37:17,636 --> 00:37:20,156 Speaker 1: but it was making its way out into the world, 592 00:37:20,436 --> 00:37:23,156 Speaker 1: sharing the hardships of farming and the joy of it. 593 00:37:23,636 --> 00:37:27,356 Speaker 1: Right when the country hit a crisis of understanding, schools 594 00:37:27,356 --> 00:37:30,756 Speaker 1: began teaching the game in droves. According to George. More 595 00:37:30,796 --> 00:37:34,116 Speaker 1: than three thousand classrooms in North America have used the 596 00:37:34,156 --> 00:37:36,796 Speaker 1: game in one way or another to teach kids about 597 00:37:36,796 --> 00:37:39,636 Speaker 1: what it means to run a farm. I talked to 598 00:37:39,676 --> 00:37:42,476 Speaker 1: a slew of agriculture teachers and they all said the 599 00:37:42,516 --> 00:37:46,116 Speaker 1: same thing. The game was a perfect teaching tool because 600 00:37:46,116 --> 00:37:49,316 Speaker 1: it was fun and it was true. It got passed 601 00:37:49,316 --> 00:37:52,436 Speaker 1: along one year to the next, spread from classroom to 602 00:37:52,476 --> 00:37:56,756 Speaker 1: classroom like seeds on the wind. The Washington State Legislature 603 00:37:56,836 --> 00:38:01,076 Speaker 1: passed a resolution recognizing the game's educational value. When the 604 00:38:01,116 --> 00:38:05,836 Speaker 1: Soviet Union fell, the US Agency for International Development helped 605 00:38:05,916 --> 00:38:09,556 Speaker 1: bring George and the game to Russia to help teach 606 00:38:09,636 --> 00:38:14,196 Speaker 1: what privatized farming would look like. Over time, the game 607 00:38:14,396 --> 00:38:19,196 Speaker 1: sold hundreds of thousands of copies. With the money from 608 00:38:19,196 --> 00:38:21,636 Speaker 1: the Farming Game, George and Anne could keep their own 609 00:38:21,676 --> 00:38:25,076 Speaker 1: farm running, a small oasis at the far reaches of 610 00:38:25,076 --> 00:38:28,196 Speaker 1: the farm crisis. The house that we grew up in 611 00:38:28,716 --> 00:38:32,676 Speaker 1: was built up around us. Laura Rohrbacher, the daughter who 612 00:38:32,676 --> 00:38:35,596 Speaker 1: occasioned the Farming Game, She and the game they're the 613 00:38:35,636 --> 00:38:38,036 Speaker 1: same age. I don't know if you heard the story, 614 00:38:38,156 --> 00:38:40,236 Speaker 1: Like when I was born, there's this little nook in 615 00:38:40,236 --> 00:38:42,596 Speaker 1: our living room and my dad was building it, and 616 00:38:42,636 --> 00:38:45,036 Speaker 1: my mom said, Okay, I'm gonna have this baby, stop building, 617 00:38:45,076 --> 00:38:47,116 Speaker 1: so clean up your mess. And then my dad never 618 00:38:47,156 --> 00:38:49,116 Speaker 1: finished that little nook. You can still go there, and 619 00:38:49,116 --> 00:38:52,916 Speaker 1: they're still like insulation sticking out around all the kids. 620 00:38:52,956 --> 00:38:55,196 Speaker 1: Remember the phones, how the ring of the eight hundred 621 00:38:55,276 --> 00:38:58,236 Speaker 1: numbers sounded different than the other two lines. The order 622 00:38:58,276 --> 00:39:01,636 Speaker 1: sheets printed in triple kit posted by each phone ring 623 00:39:01,716 --> 00:39:04,716 Speaker 1: all hours. So back then, like eight hundred number twenty 624 00:39:04,716 --> 00:39:07,516 Speaker 1: percent just rang into our house and all the kids dispute. 625 00:39:07,556 --> 00:39:09,516 Speaker 1: We're going off the wall like doing whatever were doing 626 00:39:09,596 --> 00:39:12,596 Speaker 1: and just monkeying around, and my dad would yell before 627 00:39:12,636 --> 00:39:14,676 Speaker 1: enco phone, it's a money call. It's a money call. 628 00:39:14,876 --> 00:39:18,996 Speaker 1: Quiet down, And of course we wouldn't. And so then 629 00:39:19,236 --> 00:39:21,836 Speaker 1: my dad's trying to take a farming game order on 630 00:39:21,916 --> 00:39:25,036 Speaker 1: the phone as he's crazy. Noises are in the background, 631 00:39:25,036 --> 00:39:28,436 Speaker 1: and we would hear him say, oh, congratulations, you're the 632 00:39:28,476 --> 00:39:32,596 Speaker 1: ten thousand schollar this week or something. We're all celebrating 633 00:39:32,636 --> 00:39:35,076 Speaker 1: here in the office, and it's just us kids yelling 634 00:39:35,076 --> 00:39:39,436 Speaker 1: and screaming in the background. Farm kids are born into jobs. 635 00:39:39,796 --> 00:39:42,436 Speaker 1: Farming game kids the same. When they got to be 636 00:39:42,476 --> 00:39:45,636 Speaker 1: eight or so. They started taking the calls themselves if 637 00:39:45,636 --> 00:39:47,436 Speaker 1: you didn't feel like taking an order, but you were 638 00:39:47,436 --> 00:39:49,596 Speaker 1: the one closest of the phone, you know, your brothers 639 00:39:49,596 --> 00:39:51,356 Speaker 1: would scatter and you'd beat the one standing there with 640 00:39:51,436 --> 00:39:54,476 Speaker 1: a phone's ringing, so you'd answer the phone, Hello the 641 00:39:54,516 --> 00:39:58,796 Speaker 1: weekend for her company, and your old voice. Yes, oh 642 00:39:58,836 --> 00:40:00,956 Speaker 1: that's a great question, but this is a shipping department. 643 00:40:01,076 --> 00:40:03,836 Speaker 1: Let me get you sales, and you put them on hold, 644 00:40:04,116 --> 00:40:09,796 Speaker 1: and then you say, mom, the phones for you. The 645 00:40:09,876 --> 00:40:13,716 Speaker 1: house was full of games, cardboard boxes for forts, hundreds 646 00:40:13,756 --> 00:40:17,236 Speaker 1: of dice, millions of dollars in play money. But the 647 00:40:17,276 --> 00:40:20,676 Speaker 1: house itself was a kind of wonderland too. At Christmas 648 00:40:20,676 --> 00:40:23,516 Speaker 1: they'd get these gigantic twenty foot trees and nail them 649 00:40:23,556 --> 00:40:27,076 Speaker 1: straight into the floor. They lived year round in nature, 650 00:40:27,476 --> 00:40:30,716 Speaker 1: watching the seasons turn, shading one into the other. At 651 00:40:30,756 --> 00:40:33,436 Speaker 1: each corner of the game board, you get just enough 652 00:40:33,476 --> 00:40:36,476 Speaker 1: snow to pull the sleds out and sled down the 653 00:40:36,516 --> 00:40:39,276 Speaker 1: horse pasture. You know that's right next to like this 654 00:40:39,476 --> 00:40:42,036 Speaker 1: little creek that when the snow melts it fills with water. 655 00:40:42,076 --> 00:40:44,396 Speaker 1: And you get to get to sticks and pretend they're 656 00:40:44,396 --> 00:40:46,716 Speaker 1: fishing poles and then just pass out as the waterfall 657 00:40:46,796 --> 00:40:49,316 Speaker 1: that pours down, and in the spring it rages like 658 00:40:49,356 --> 00:40:51,156 Speaker 1: you gotta keep little kids away from it. And then 659 00:40:51,476 --> 00:40:53,316 Speaker 1: by the end of summer it's totally dry and you 660 00:40:53,356 --> 00:40:55,516 Speaker 1: just have like a rocky bet. I mean, there's just 661 00:40:55,876 --> 00:41:01,676 Speaker 1: you can explore forever, just right outside the door. That 662 00:41:01,876 --> 00:41:04,556 Speaker 1: life is why George and Ann but everything they had 663 00:41:04,596 --> 00:41:07,436 Speaker 1: on the game a long shot to let them raise 664 00:41:07,476 --> 00:41:11,676 Speaker 1: their kids in Nature ten Nature. They were an idiosyncratic 665 00:41:11,716 --> 00:41:15,596 Speaker 1: farm family, but other farm families, even ones who didn't 666 00:41:15,636 --> 00:41:19,196 Speaker 1: live in geodesic domes, have always been the game's biggest audience, 667 00:41:19,836 --> 00:41:23,476 Speaker 1: And during those hard years when rural America was coming apart, 668 00:41:24,036 --> 00:41:27,036 Speaker 1: they were playing it in so many kitchens, with the 669 00:41:27,076 --> 00:41:29,876 Speaker 1: table cleared and the bright green of the Yakima Valley 670 00:41:30,036 --> 00:41:33,276 Speaker 1: laid out under the ceiling lamp, the dark outside shrouding 671 00:41:33,276 --> 00:41:36,876 Speaker 1: an ailing farm, the family imagining what a lucky role 672 00:41:36,916 --> 00:41:40,036 Speaker 1: would feel like, or a bumper crop, or a bad 673 00:41:40,076 --> 00:41:46,476 Speaker 1: thing you could laugh at instead of cry. Those moments 674 00:41:46,676 --> 00:41:50,556 Speaker 1: are the game's true legacy, and they aren't recorded for posterity, 675 00:41:51,156 --> 00:41:53,396 Speaker 1: but George glimpsed one of them one year during the 676 00:41:53,436 --> 00:41:55,796 Speaker 1: crisis when he had left his family at the ranch 677 00:41:55,916 --> 00:41:58,036 Speaker 1: to head out on the road selling the game at 678 00:41:58,036 --> 00:42:03,236 Speaker 1: an agricultural exposition in Montana. And I'm sitting behind the 679 00:42:03,276 --> 00:42:07,436 Speaker 1: booths waiting for a customer to walk by, and there's 680 00:42:07,436 --> 00:42:10,596 Speaker 1: sort of a crowd of bill milling around. And at 681 00:42:10,596 --> 00:42:20,076 Speaker 1: the back of this crowd was this absolutely gigantic guy farmer. Anyway, 682 00:42:20,156 --> 00:42:23,596 Speaker 1: he is eyeball in the booth and eyeball in me, 683 00:42:23,716 --> 00:42:27,596 Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, boy, what's on his mind. If it's 684 00:42:27,676 --> 00:42:30,756 Speaker 1: not good, I don't want to be here. He kinds 685 00:42:30,756 --> 00:42:34,276 Speaker 1: of pushes his way through the crowd and he comes 686 00:42:34,356 --> 00:42:38,036 Speaker 1: right up to me, and he said, I want to 687 00:42:38,036 --> 00:42:41,556 Speaker 1: shake your hand. And I am a hooked in a 688 00:42:41,636 --> 00:42:46,116 Speaker 1: handshake with a oh about a six foot six, three 689 00:42:46,156 --> 00:42:50,156 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty pound guy who could wrestle a steer 690 00:42:50,436 --> 00:42:55,476 Speaker 1: and win. And he's crying. The man told George he 691 00:42:55,596 --> 00:42:59,356 Speaker 1: was divorced with two sons. The oldest, a teenager, had 692 00:42:59,356 --> 00:43:02,276 Speaker 1: been arrested not long before. When his son was home 693 00:43:02,316 --> 00:43:04,476 Speaker 1: from jail and was over at his dad's house with 694 00:43:04,476 --> 00:43:07,756 Speaker 1: his little brother, they pulled out the farming game and 695 00:43:07,876 --> 00:43:10,676 Speaker 1: the three of them began to play. They were laughing 696 00:43:10,756 --> 00:43:14,476 Speaker 1: and just being the kind of family you want to be. 697 00:43:15,716 --> 00:43:21,276 Speaker 1: And anyway, this family of three men, two little ones 698 00:43:21,276 --> 00:43:26,156 Speaker 1: and one giant one played the game every Sunday afternoon 699 00:43:26,996 --> 00:43:30,476 Speaker 1: and left the game where it was on the table 700 00:43:30,676 --> 00:43:33,916 Speaker 1: until the next time the boys came and then picked 701 00:43:33,916 --> 00:43:41,996 Speaker 1: it up in the middle of the game. And anyway, 702 00:43:43,036 --> 00:43:46,236 Speaker 1: he's still holding my hand, and he looks me right 703 00:43:46,276 --> 00:43:50,556 Speaker 1: in the eye again, and he said, you say my boys, 704 00:43:52,316 --> 00:44:01,836 Speaker 1: and then he turned around walked away. Farming is cyclical, 705 00:44:02,156 --> 00:44:06,236 Speaker 1: like the seasons, the Farming game turned out to be countercyclical. 706 00:44:06,996 --> 00:44:09,716 Speaker 1: Over the years, it became clear that it sold when 707 00:44:09,756 --> 00:44:13,196 Speaker 1: times were worst. It's been in print ever since nineteen 708 00:44:13,236 --> 00:44:16,436 Speaker 1: seventy nine, and sales picked up both during the financial 709 00:44:16,436 --> 00:44:21,076 Speaker 1: crisis and the COVID pandemic. That first crisis, though, the 710 00:44:21,116 --> 00:44:24,396 Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties is when George's fate in the games 711 00:44:24,916 --> 00:44:28,636 Speaker 1: diverged from the fate of the American family farm. He'd 712 00:44:28,676 --> 00:44:30,716 Speaker 1: been in lockstep with the trends of the day, the 713 00:44:30,756 --> 00:44:34,276 Speaker 1: Butts agenda, getting bigger, buying on credit, planting fence row 714 00:44:34,316 --> 00:44:36,796 Speaker 1: to fence row, and then watching it all come apart. 715 00:44:37,276 --> 00:44:40,356 Speaker 1: But the game saved the Roarbockers, even while the farm 716 00:44:40,396 --> 00:44:43,836 Speaker 1: crisis drove so many other small family farmers off their land. 717 00:44:44,516 --> 00:44:47,556 Speaker 1: At the start of the twentieth century, nearly forty percent 718 00:44:47,556 --> 00:44:50,996 Speaker 1: of Americans lived on farms. Today about one percent Due 719 00:44:51,716 --> 00:44:54,836 Speaker 1: there are still family farms, just fewer and mostly bigger. 720 00:44:55,836 --> 00:44:58,476 Speaker 1: And in George, they had meant to make a board game. 721 00:44:59,356 --> 00:45:03,756 Speaker 1: They wound up writing a eulogy. Late last winter, I 722 00:45:03,836 --> 00:45:07,036 Speaker 1: spent a weekend with the Roarbockers in Colorado. They still 723 00:45:07,036 --> 00:45:10,036 Speaker 1: on the farm in Washington State. They live here now 724 00:45:10,516 --> 00:45:12,836 Speaker 1: in a little town in the far southwest of the state, 725 00:45:12,996 --> 00:45:16,356 Speaker 1: Mere a national forest. We talked for hours and hours, 726 00:45:16,996 --> 00:45:19,836 Speaker 1: but on the last night there was one thing I 727 00:45:19,876 --> 00:45:26,156 Speaker 1: had left to do, because we played the farming game 728 00:45:26,836 --> 00:45:30,796 Speaker 1: me George and Laura, her husband Tim, and her daughter 729 00:45:30,876 --> 00:45:39,236 Speaker 1: Vivian ten as hey An set it up. How my 730 00:45:39,396 --> 00:45:48,996 Speaker 1: five thousand dollars. Everybody starts of course, that'sn't genius. Wow, 731 00:45:49,996 --> 00:45:52,516 Speaker 1: what a great idea. We're gonna find out who admitted 732 00:45:52,556 --> 00:45:54,436 Speaker 1: the game at the end of this, Yeah, take him 733 00:45:54,436 --> 00:45:59,196 Speaker 1: out to the park. We began to play. I've never 734 00:45:59,236 --> 00:46:02,276 Speaker 1: been a farmer, so with each bumper crop or farmers 735 00:46:02,276 --> 00:46:04,996 Speaker 1: fate card I was learning some of the things George 736 00:46:04,996 --> 00:46:07,356 Speaker 1: and Anne learned from their neighbors that their neighbors had 737 00:46:07,436 --> 00:46:10,796 Speaker 1: learned from their parents. George, for his part, seemed to 738 00:46:10,796 --> 00:46:13,036 Speaker 1: be learning some lessons for the second or third time. 739 00:46:14,036 --> 00:46:18,396 Speaker 1: I noticed all you have leftist five hundred dollars. They're 740 00:46:18,396 --> 00:46:21,276 Speaker 1: gonna go bankrupt in the first ten minute. Well, I 741 00:46:21,356 --> 00:46:24,316 Speaker 1: do have a reputation of either winning or going brok 742 00:46:25,316 --> 00:46:27,956 Speaker 1: and told me earlier that George either wins big or 743 00:46:27,996 --> 00:46:30,436 Speaker 1: lose this big. That night, he was out of the 744 00:46:30,476 --> 00:46:33,676 Speaker 1: game before he'd made it around the board twice. Now 745 00:46:33,756 --> 00:46:37,236 Speaker 1: here's where your situation is. You're out of money. I 746 00:46:37,316 --> 00:46:45,316 Speaker 1: got some troubles here. Watching George and Anne play together 747 00:46:45,636 --> 00:46:48,836 Speaker 1: was like seeing the whole story in miniature. The dreamer 748 00:46:48,876 --> 00:46:52,316 Speaker 1: and the pragmatist, two ways of thinking about chance. You 749 00:46:52,356 --> 00:46:55,196 Speaker 1: expect the best or if you prepare for the worst. 750 00:46:56,276 --> 00:46:58,396 Speaker 1: I had come to their story expecting it to be 751 00:46:58,436 --> 00:47:01,996 Speaker 1: a story about the loss of agricultural knowledge that used 752 00:47:02,036 --> 00:47:04,596 Speaker 1: to be the most common kind of common knowledge there was, 753 00:47:05,116 --> 00:47:07,436 Speaker 1: And I thought when I set out that the game 754 00:47:07,516 --> 00:47:09,436 Speaker 1: was just a very sweet way to share it again. 755 00:47:10,556 --> 00:47:13,316 Speaker 1: But playing the game that night, I was thinking about 756 00:47:13,356 --> 00:47:19,036 Speaker 1: games and risks and knows unknowns. George says farmers have 757 00:47:19,196 --> 00:47:23,476 Speaker 1: to be optimists, otherwise they'd never planted a seed. The 758 00:47:23,516 --> 00:47:27,076 Speaker 1: farming game is a model of farming, but farming is 759 00:47:27,116 --> 00:47:30,716 Speaker 1: a model of life itself. They're good years and bad. 760 00:47:31,436 --> 00:47:34,596 Speaker 1: You can prepare, but you can't control. You live in 761 00:47:34,596 --> 00:47:37,636 Speaker 1: a world where things grow if you care for them, 762 00:47:37,676 --> 00:47:40,156 Speaker 1: and if you're going to play games of chance, it's 763 00:47:40,196 --> 00:47:43,116 Speaker 1: best to play them with someone else. That way, you 764 00:47:43,156 --> 00:47:47,676 Speaker 1: win even when you lose. I'm going to buy some 765 00:47:48,036 --> 00:48:09,236 Speaker 1: you can't. I was going to buy them last. Okay. 766 00:48:16,276 --> 00:48:19,956 Speaker 1: This episode was written and read by Ben Natt of Haafrey. 767 00:48:20,476 --> 00:48:23,676 Speaker 1: It's produced by Sophie Crane, Ben Natt of Haffrey and 768 00:48:23,796 --> 00:48:27,276 Speaker 1: Lucy Sullivan. Our editors are Julia Barton and Sophie Crane, 769 00:48:27,516 --> 00:48:30,836 Speaker 1: and our executive producer is Mia Lobell. Jake Gorsky is 770 00:48:30,876 --> 00:48:35,356 Speaker 1: our engineer. Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Original music by 771 00:48:35,436 --> 00:48:39,916 Speaker 1: Matthias Boss and John Evans of Stellwagen Symfinett. Our research 772 00:48:39,956 --> 00:48:44,876 Speaker 1: assistant is Mia Hazra. Our full proof player is Robert Ricotta. 773 00:48:45,236 --> 00:48:47,556 Speaker 1: Many of our sound effects are from Harry Janette Junior 774 00:48:47,596 --> 00:48:50,876 Speaker 1: and the Star Jennette Foundation. The Last Archive is a 775 00:48:50,876 --> 00:48:53,876 Speaker 1: production of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show, consider 776 00:48:53,916 --> 00:48:58,436 Speaker 1: subscribing to pushkin Plus, offering bonus content like The Last Archivist, 777 00:48:58,716 --> 00:49:02,316 Speaker 1: a limited series just for subscribers, and add free listening 778 00:49:02,356 --> 00:49:05,636 Speaker 1: across our network for four ninety nine a month. Look 779 00:49:05,676 --> 00:49:08,756 Speaker 1: for the pushkin Plus channel on Apple Podcasts or at 780 00:49:08,756 --> 00:49:12,396 Speaker 1: push dot fm. If you like the show, please remember 781 00:49:12,396 --> 00:49:15,836 Speaker 1: to rate, share, and review. To find more pushkun podcasts, 782 00:49:16,156 --> 00:49:19,876 Speaker 1: listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 783 00:49:19,916 --> 00:49:22,116 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. I'm Jill Lapoor.