people well into their 80s and 90s who
are extremely active in the vintage trac-tor movement, and who regularly plough
fields, repair engines and chew the fat along
with the younger folk who share a common interest.
I know an elderly gentleman who makes
bridles and harness for heavy horses. He’s in his 90s, and I’m sure he probably doesn’t
need to work, but work he does, for the love
of it though, and not for the money. I called to see him one evening, and there he was
sitting at his kitchen table with all of his leatherwork laid out before him. “I do a
bit every evening,” he told me. “It’s better
than watching rubbish on the television.” How true. I was told he would be able to
make up a piece for a donkey bridle for me,
which he did, there and then. “I’m never lonely,” he smiled as he punched some
holes in the leather, “because there are al-
ways people like yourself dropping in.” One should never underestimate the
therapeutic benefits of engaging one’s mind in a favourite hobby. Hours pass without
a negative thought or worry entering ourheads, and at the end of the day there is a
sense of achievement, of knowing that time wasn’t wasted, and of having gotten a little
closer towards a personal goal.
Therapeutic benefits
Another gentleman I know owns two
tractors and gains an enormous amount of pleasure from of them. John Davies, a
farmer’s son, spent most of his life work-
ing as an agricultural contractor. When he fell ill with cancer a few years ago, he
underwent chemotherapy. He was unto work for some time, but not being one able
to cope well with sitting around doing
nothing, John felt that he needed a proj-ect to cheer him up and to give him some-
thing to think about apart from cancer.
tive way to boost morale when dealing Engaging oneself in a project is a posi-
with a life-threatening illness, so with
that in mind John and his eldest son, Gwyn, headed off to a nearby auction for
a bit of “retail therapy.” John and Gwyn were keen to bid on a Massey Ferguson
3 5X, as they knew it was a tractor that12
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