TITLE: Talking Shop
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 18, 2016 3:49 PM
DESC:
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BODY:
I agree with W.H. Auden:
Who on earth invented the silly convention that it is boring
or impolite to talk shop? Nothing is more interesting to
listen to, especially if the shop is not one's own.
My wife went on a forty-mile bike ride this morning, a fundraiser
for
the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective,
which visited three local farms. At those stops, I had the great
fortune to listen to folks on all three farms talk shop. We
learned about making ice cream and woodcarving at
Three Pines Farm.
We learned about selecting, growing, and picking apples -- and
the damage hail and bugs can do -- at
Blueridge Orchard.
And the owner of
the Fitkin Popcorn Farm
talked about the popcorn business. He showed us the machines
they use to sort the corn out of the field, first by size and
then by density. He also talked about planting fields,
harvesting the corn, and selling the product nationally. I even
learned that we can pop the corn while it's still on the ears!
(This will happen in my house very soon.)
I love to listen to people talk shop. In unguarded moments,
they speak honestly about something they love and know deeply.
They let us in on what it is like for them to work in their corner
of the world. However big I try to make my world, there is so
much more out there to learn.
The Auden passage is from his book
A Certain World,
a collage of poems, quotes, and short pieces from other writers
with occasional comments of his own. Auden would have been an
eclectic blogger! This book feels like a Tumblr blog, without
all the pictures and 'likes'. Some of the passages are out of
date, but they let us peak in on the mind of an accomplished
poet. A little like good shop talk.
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