A Teacher Called 4-H

Contemporary History 2 – A Teacher Called 4-H

I was trying not to let any of the drops of sweat running down my nose drip off onto any of the exhibits. For the most part, I think I was successful. If not, to the victims I apologize.

September 5, 2018 turned out to be a rather hot day, especially in a non-air-conditioned metal barn built out in the open on the Luzerne County Fair fairgrounds in Dallas, PA. The fair hadn’t started yet, that was scheduled to happen that evening. I was there to help judge 4-H Exhibits. Meghan Carroll, our brand-new, whiz-bang, Penn State Luzerne County 4-H Agent, invited me to be a judge and when duty calls, one answers, so there I was.

Not sure of the location and not wanting to be late, I arrived early – an hour and a half early. Poor fellow at the gate had no idea what to do with me so he asked me to “please go over there by that other car and park.” He knew I was waiting for Meghan to arrive with more instructions. So, that’s exactly what I did. That was around 9:30am. Around 10:15 a Security Guard decided he had best check me out. I guess I was sitting in my car too long. However, in these times, I welcomed his interest.

“Anything I can do to help you there, Buddy?” I heard a voice ask, drawing my attention away from my Cryptogram puzzle I’d been working on. “No, thank-you,” I responded, “I’m waiting for Meghan Carroll, the County 4-H Agent, to arrive.” “Oh, you’re waiting for someone. OK. Can’t be too careful these days. Hope you didn’t mind.” I didn’t. I knew he was uncomfortable with me being there. I also knew he was uncomfortable allowing me to remain there because he then began a conversation.

“Were you from?” “Drums.” “Oh that’s beautiful there!” he exclaimed. Then I added, “I’m here to help judge some exhibits but we need Meghan to arrive to give instructions.” I knew he needed more than just “I’m waiting for someone.” Ice broken, he started to tell me of former security incidents that taught him to be careful under similar circumstances. That ended when Meghan called me. I put her on speaker phone so he could also hear. She wanted to let me know she was on her way and to ask if I would like a cup of coffee. I said that I would LOVE a cup, as large as possible, black. That was good enough to relieve my new friend’s concerns and he headed back to his booth. He got a chuckle out of my “as large as possible” response.

Meghan wasn’t only bringing me a cup of coffee, she was bringing my fellow judge as well, her grandmother, just in from Michigan for a visit. Meghan comes from a 4-H Family; Michiganders but we won’t hold that against them! After Meghan arrived, and we found each other, off we headed to the 4-H Barn. I tossed a wave to my new Security Guard friend as we passed by. That was around 11:10am or so.

Once inside, we got right to work. I have never judged so many different classes of exhibits at one time in all my career.  Usually, judges are given a class or department or etcetera, but this was a small group of exhibits so we judged all classes: Vegetables, sewing, posters, decorated cakes (2), project books, art, photos, group exhibits, everything. I was wondering if some kid would be dragging his cow past me next! That didn’t happen so I guess they had someone else for that department.

My fellow judge was quite impressive in what she knew and in her approach. That made the thing easier! So we went, item by item, class by class, until we’d seen, examined, discussed, and judged, everything. Then we stuck around a bit longer to help Meghan put ribbons on everything.  By 3:00pm I had to leave, but as we were wrapping things up Meghan’s grandmother looked at me and asked, “Where did you learn all this?”

I hope she wasn’t being sarcastic. I might have over-discussed a few things along the way. I, however, took the question as a desire to know. It threw me off-guard a bit at first so I started stumbling around with stuff like being a member of various 4-H judging teams and my 4-H project experiences, experiences in Massachusetts and Maine as a 4-H professional, then suddenly I stopped myself, looked at her and said, “Why, 4-H!” Then we all laughed because it was the obvious answer.

As I reflected on her question and my answer, in the car on the way home, I realized just how amazing my answer to her question really was.  I really was drawing on knowledge I gained around 45 years ago as a 4-H’er! Yes, some was learned as a 4-H Volunteer or 4-H professional in the years since but the majority came from those formative tween and teenage years of my life! And then I thought, why, we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what I knew; learned in 4-H!

It really underscored just how much I DID get from 4-H!

During my ten years as a 4-H Member, 1967-1977, I kept a garden (it was part of my family’s garden but we knew what plants were mine) raising everything from peas to potatoes, cucumbers to corn, pumpkins to peppers, red tomatoes, green tomatoes, plum tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, a few rotten tomatoes and lots and lots of weeds. I had my own hive of honey bees, that didn’t last too long but still. I studied geology, making a collection of rocks, minerals, and fossils – mostly fossils because that’s what interested me the most. I learned some outdoor cooking skills. I built and flew a number of rockets, some of them I even found again after they returned to earth! I learned how to keep my dog well in Veterinary Science and the Earth well in Ecological Studies. I learned how to take a satisfactory photograph and how to write a satisfactory story; like all 4-H'ers, I wrote one for each of my 4-H projects. I kept records, financial and progress, of each of my 4-H projects, exhibited those projects in competitions and fairs, winning some blue ribbons, reds, whites, and LOTS of gold and green ribbons (4^th and 5^th places) and even some ribbon colors I didn’t even know there were (BROWN!? REALLY!?).

I gained further understanding of “Good Sportsmanship” by writing and presenting educational demonstrations and presentations at local, county, and state events, and when they were competitive events, again winning a rainbow of ribbon colors. My educational exhibits were entered in local, county, and state competitions and some were used in street-level store-window displays throughout the Hazleton area during various National 4-H Weeks. I sat on committees planning and implementing such things as the 4-H Club’s Holiday party, the 4-H Club’s Nature Trail on the Penn State Hazleton Campus, County 4-H One-Day-Camps, two State 4-H Leadership Conferences held on the Penn State University Park Campus, just to name a few.

Leadership skills were further learned by serving as an officer (secretary, recreation leader, President, etc.) of the Sugarloaf Valley 4-H Club and the Browns Grove 4-H Club. I organized a 4-H Club myself called the Lower Luzerne County 4-H Radio Club in which we wrote and broadcast monthly 5-minute 4-H shows (one of the Extension Agent’s weekly radio shows each month). I helped plan and performed in shows put on by the 4-H Performing Arts Club, organized by a fellow 4-H’er, April Boock. Served as “artist” on the County 4-H Newsletter Team one summer and fall, drawing a different masthead each month. I served as a 4-H Camp Counselor for a number of county 4-H Camps, one of which was held in western PA and was held exclusively for children who were victims of the 1972 Wilkes-Barre flood that resulted from a visit by Hurricane Agnus. This service was a particular honor and recognition for me since I was only 14 at the time, younger even than some of the campers!

My main interest, and therefore the only 4-H project I studied throughout my 4-H membership, was Entomology. I studied; meaning I collected, preserved, identified, and displayed: more than 200 species (meaning a much larger number of specimens) of insects. Mostly mature insects but toward the end of my membership, branched out to immature specimens as well. I thought about collecting spiders, which are not insects, but only briefly, although I did collect a few webs.

I raised, from eggs back to eggs, Walking Stick Insects, Cecropia Moths, and Honey Bees. I learned how painful the sting of Honey Bees and various Hornets/Wasps can be. I hunted down various grasshoppers and crickets in the neighbor’s fields by following the insects’ mating calls (try it sometime, hours of fun in the hot, mid-day sun! When the insect hears a noise or sees movement, it stops singing. So you stand like a statue until it starts up again, stopping again when it stops, until you finally capture the specimen or it decides the area is no longer safe and flies off further than you wish to follow.). Learned the techniques required to nab a dragonfly with a net near many ponds and streams (I think dragonflies are the fastest insects on Earth!), used fruit traps to capture various wasps, bees and flies, some I sort of wished I hadn’t trapped (see note concerning stings above). I’ve cut open Goldenrod Galls to find the Gall Fly larva inside, combed the cat for fleas, sat half the night by a lamp hoping for an Underwing or Luna moth to happen by (moths and numerous other insects are drawn to lights at night). I’ve caught, by hand, Giant Water Bugs, which, I’m very glad I never learned firsthand, is an extremely stupid thing to do because they can inflict a very painful bite (so I read later)!

That is a lesson I never seemed to learn, perhaps thankfully! While living in Botswana in 1980, on another 4-H experience, I saw some beautiful, large (about an inch in length), yellow and black beetles. So, wishing to collect one to study later and not having my killing jar with me (yes, I did collect insects during the 18 months I lived in Africa), I simply picked one up and wrapped it in my handkerchief. As I stuck it into my pocket, many of the villagers came rushing up to me, some in panic, exclaiming things I could not understand not having a solid grasp on the Setswana language. The 4-B (Botswana’s 4-H program) Regional Director I was with quieted the people down by telling them everything was OK, that I was a “scientist”. At the end of the day, finally back in my hotel room, I pulled my prize from my pants pocket and tossed it into the killing jar (a glass jar with a Plaster-of-Paris base that has been soaked with a poisonous liquid; as it soaks in, the jar fills with the fumes which kill the insect). As soon as my prize; known as a Blister Beetle, I learned later; got a whiff of those fumes it activated its defense system, spraying the inside of the jar with an acid it makes in its body. When that acid hit that Plaster-of-Paris the jar instantly filled with a white foam!

And I had been carrying that thing around in my pocket for a good part of that DAY!

But that piece of info, how painful a blister beetle’s blister can be, is something I happily DID NOT learn, hands-on, in 4-H. It is what I DID learn in 4-H, as I’ve described here, that is so stunning! And AGAIN, I’m just scratching the surface! Yes, there is more but no I won’t go on any longer, if you haven’t already stopped reading, I can’t guess how much longer it will be until you do!

My answer to my new friend’s question above was correct, and not at all an exaggeration! “Where did you learn all this?”

Why, 4-H!