Word: patly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...only Benedict exempted from chores is two-year-old Luke, and even he tours the fields regularly, bouncing on his father's lap in a pickup truck (his present on his second birthday: a toy tractor). Besides the supervision and paperwork, Pat labors with his hands too, doing most of the machinery repairs himself...
...Pat's wife Fran, 43, is somewhat in the background; the Benedict family is a decided patriarchy. A farmer's daughter, she worked as a stewardess for Braniff Airlines and met Pat during a layover in Fargo, N. Dak.; a sister of Pat's who worked at the hotel where Fran stayed introduced them. Fran is the secretary of Benedict Farms and does the bookkeeping. During planting and harvesting seasons she also runs the farm's communications network, relaying messages by private FM radio band between Pat's pickup truck, the other machines in the fields and the outside world?...
...sometimes is for Pat. She goes along on most of Pat's frequent trips to meetings of farm organizations in big cities, but she is most at home in her kitchen, where she is a master of the Pillsbury Bake-Off school of roast-beef-and-apple-pie cuisine...
Socially, the Benedicts are an example of the conservative values associated with farmers; their life-style would seem spartan to a city family with their assets. Fran delights in giving small dinner parties for neighbors?at which Pat may down a Scotch or two, though his regular drink is beer. But many evenings and weekends are devoted to TV or simply family conversation. The Benedicts are Roman Catholics and regular churchgoers; when St. Cecilia's Church in Sabin burned to the ground two years ago, Pat was elected to help supervise construction of a new building. He is close with...
...children all seem to enjoy farming, but Pat insists that they not make up their minds about careers until they finish college. Says Pat: "I've seen some families come to blows because a son was forced to farm when he didn't want to." But last year, when he bought still another neighbor's farm, Pat for the first time left the house standing because "it would be perfect for one of the kids...