page_44 < previous page page_44 next page > Page 44 laughs a quick, sniffy laugh through his nose. He clasps his hands together behind his head saying, "Sure he put his farm into preservationwith the money he got selling the other farm to Ford/New Holland!" When I begin to explain Frank Ludwig's reason for selling, Petersheim cuts me off with "Frank's a developer too! He sold the land so he could get a better farm!" adding, "And these people who move in here from the outside, then try and start telling people who were born and raised her what to do" "So I guess people should just move here and shut up? They have no rights as residents of the area, then?" I say. "Course they do," Petersheim says thinly. "It's just a matter of time before the valley will be developed," Kraybill says, clearing his throat. "You can't stop it. The only way you can stop development is to force people to stop having babies!" (This is a much politer take on the issue than I heard last summer when Ed Worteck and I stopped by the old offices of Garden Spot Village. At that time, Nevin Kraybill, half kidding said, "You know the only way to stop development, don't you?" "No," we said. "What's that?" "Cut off men's penises'' was Kraybill's reply.) This morning we are in tense gridlock, talking at one another, not to. I have half a mind to get up and leave. Suddenly I ask, "Were either of you born on farms?" and the whole conversation turns. Both men relax in their chairs. Leroy Petersheim says he was one of twelve Mennonite children born on a farm in nearby Morgantown, a farm still in the family but which probably won't be after this generation. Then he gets up and goes into the next room. Nevin Kraybill says his father was a farmer who sold seeds and crushed limestone and that he is one of four children; he has a brother and two sisters. Growing up near Elizabethtown, he helped work the farm. He adds, "But it wasn't for me." Leroy suddenly returns holding two framed pictures: one is a black-and-white portrait of Nevin Kraybill's familyNevin with his wife, parents, brother, and two sisters. Nevin and his wife are wearing city clothes; his parents are in plain Mennonite clothing. The other is a color portrait of Leroy Petersheim's family. In the picture, Leroy is a little boy dressed in the plain garb that his many brothers and sisters are also wearing. Regarding the photo almost tenderly as he holds it in his large hands, Petersheim says his father died when he was eight, yet the family continued to work the farm together. For my benefit he adds, "People from the city have no i-dea how hard farm life can be." Both men then speak fondly of the relief work they did as young adults when they left the farm to work with the MCC in Africa, Leroy mention- Â < previous page page_44 next page >