Hoagland Corn Farmer
In Hoagland, there is a farmer who has a large plot of land that is approximately half a mile from my community. In the summer, he grows about 300 acres of feed corn. He has a small barn, a large barn, and a few pens for animals. In front of the barn area is his small ranch style home.
In the autumn, he harvests his corn and as the year pushes towards December, you can see that little by little, Christmas decorations begin to show up on his buildings. Around mid December, he begins to play Christmas carols through a very loud speaker system. These carols are loud enough that you can hear them clearly at my residence...
Background Story
Last year, one of the residents of my neighborhood complained about the loud music. She is one of those nosy types that is always in everybody's business. She figured that if she complained to the property manager here, something could be done about the music being played on the farm.
What she did not realize is the fact that the farm is a completely different property and that the manager here could do absolutely nothing about the carols, except call the police and try to have them do a noise complaint. The police did not, so the carols continued. They continued this year and probably every year going forward.
The phone call went something like this:
Anna: I am getting complaints about loud music at the property. I am going to go out there and write up some violations.
Me: You can't.
Anna: Why not? It's against the rules.
Me: Because the guy playing music isn't on the property. It's the farmer down the road.
Anna: What?!? That guy is at least a mile down the road!
Me: HA HA HA, I know! He plays that music LOUD.
Anna: Oh well, Mrs. Nosy-body is gonna have to suffer.
The Real Story
My neighbor goes to the same church that the Hoagland Corn Farmer attends. One day, I was disucssing the Christmas carols with him because I thought it was kinda nice to hear them every night during the season...if only for a few hours each day. My neighbor turned to me and asked, "Do you know the full story behind why he plays Christmas carols every night for about an hour?" I admitted that I did not know the reason, so he told me.
It seems that in 2016, on Christmas Day, the Hoagland Corn Farmer's wife left the home, walked out to the barn, and killed herself.
There was no suicide note, no holiday fighting, and nothing else to reveal that the woman was going to commit suicide. He found her later that afternoon when the family had noticed that she had been missing a bit too long.
So, for that reason, the Hoagland Corn Farmer has played Christmas carols every year. He starts right around December 10th and continues until New Year's Day. He plays the carols loud...loud enough to hear clearly a mile away. He starts playing them right around 7:00pm and stops about an hour later. There is no set track listing, it's just random carols.
And while I think it is an incredibly sad story, I think it is wonderful what the farmer is doing.
