I hope the picture is large enough for you to see. I would like to thank Janet Chamberlain for posting this picture on her Face Book page.

September 17, 1955. These were the dignitaries at the National Plowing Contest held that year at Lowell Smith’s farm in Lagro Township, Indiana. In attendance that day, among others, was the Vice President of the United States of America, Mr. Richard Nixon. The Vice President and his lovely wife, Pat, were flown into Wabash, where they answered questions from maybe a dozen reporters. After that, the Vice President and his wife boarded a farm wagon and were taken for a tour of the farming area on the way to the prestigious plowing contest. (The VP rode a farm wagon from Wabash to Lagro!) The picture is of Mr. Nixon and others on the wagon. Mr. Nixon seemed to have a great interest in the stock pond on Jimmy Pobst’s farm. Mr. Nixon, having grown up in a farming community in California, had a special interest in farming innovation. After reaching the place where they would eat lunch, Mr. Nixon made a point to thank the tractor driver, Howard Wolf. Mrs. Floyd Waters, of North Manchester and a member of the Servia Congregational Christian Church, had baked a 30 pound cake as a gift from the church. There was a lunch for the Nixons and they were served by the five daughters of Charles Graham, who was the head of the Plowing Board. Mrs. Van Wilson, representing the Daughters of the American Revolution, then pinned a Constitution Week tag on the Vice President. As you look at the picture, which was taken just as they rolled into the plowing site, we see, from left to right, W.K Delaplane, Charles Graham (head of the Plowing Board), Mrs. Nixon, Roene Kallam (Queen of the Furrow), Mr. Nixon, Miss Mary Ann Wasick, an unidentified girl and then Congressman John V. Beamer. All in all, a pretty big day for Lagro.

It was a different time. America was just two years out of the Korean War. Tuberculosis vaccines had just about gotten that dreaded disease under control while polio vaccines were just rolling out (yes, it is true, COVID-19 was not our first rodeo). We had the Republican Party and the Democrat Party, but they both wanted America to prosper and move forward. On September 17 the New York Yankees were in a tight pennant race in the American League with the Cleveland Indians and the Brooklyn Dodgers were going toe to toe with the Milwaukee Braves. Gas was 29 cents a gallon, a loaf of bread was 18 cents and your telephone was wired into your wall. And serving Vice Presidents still went to things like the National Plowing Contest in a small little Indiana town where the Vice President had to ride to the event on a hay wagon sitting next to the Queen of the Furrow. Although it wasn’t mentioned, I am pretty certain that there was a prayer said before the lunch and the Star Spangled Banner was probably sung before the contest began.

As soon as I saw this picture I began to go back to the 1950s in my mind. But I also thought about our world today. Vice President Pence would have gone to the National Plowing Contest in Lagro and, being a Hoosier, he would have loved it. But the Secret Service would not have allowed him on the hay wagon without proper restraints and he almost certainly would not have been allowed to sit next to the Queen of the Furrow. (Royalty can be dangerous these days.) But would Kamala Harris go to Indiana for the Contest? I imagined the conversation.

The Vice President enters the Oval Office and walks up to the President’s desk.

“You wanted to see me, Sir?”

The president, startled, looks up from the pencil he is trying to figure out. “Oh, yes, yes of course. Kamala. Yes. I need you to make a trip.”

“Mr. President, I will go anywhere, but I will not go to the southern border where the illegals and sneaking in. I will not do it! Do you understand what I am saying?”

“I don’t want you to go to the southern border. Or maybe I do….but not this time. I need you to go to Indiana.”  

“Indiana? Sounds familiar. That’s in Canada, right? Named after the Native Americans? You want me to urge the Canadians to change the name? I can take CNN and…”

“No, Kamala, Indiana is in the USofA. Pretty sure, anyway. Its where Mayor Pete is from. I need you to go to the National Plowing Contest.”

“What is ‘plowing?’ Is it dangerous? Is someone crossing a border?”

“No, it is all safe. You’ll even get to sit next to royalty. And, I understand there is a 30 pound cake for you.”

“Royalty? Cake? Is it chocolate?”  

          OK, OK. The conversation wouldn’t sound like that. The conversation would never happen because no serving Vice President would be sent to the National Plowing Contest. We have become too refined for that kind of thing. The media would say that such a trip would ‘diminish the office.’ The Vice President would be put at unacceptable risk. Since it is not campaign season, such an appearance would be pointless. And, since the prayer before the meal would be to the Judeo-Christian God, it could not be allowed.

          But, why not? What is wrong with a little light hearted fun? Why is everything so serious? Are we a better people? Are we stronger? Back in the 1970s, President Carter used to have softball games on the White House lawn. In the 1960s, President Kennedy used to play with his children on the lawn. That just wouldn’t happen now.

          September 17, 1955 was a Saturday. Everyone was about their day. No one was really realizing that this was a bright and shining time for the country. It was just another Saturday in September. The war and riots and assassinations that marked the 1960s were simply unimaginable. The protests and political upheavals that were the 1970s could have never been foreseen. In 1955 the collapse of the family, the degrading of society and the loss of national pride was not on anyone’s radar. Those people gathered in Lagro on September 17, 1955 listening to an earnest and joking Vice President Nixon would not have believed that in nineteen years this same man would be resigning the office of President in disgrace.  

Most people now would think of it as a simpler time, but not so. The adults had all lived through at least some of the Great Depression and all of them had felt the fear and depression of World War II. Millions had fought in that war and, for that matter, those who had fought in World War I were only in their 50s or early 60s. The people of 1955 had known war and depression and disease and, in 1955, they were faced with the knowledge that if the Soviet Union and the United States got into it, all humanity could be destroyed. There was nothing simple or magical about 1955. But it was very different.

In 1955, on any given weekend, just over half of all Americans were in worship. This not saying that half of all Americans identified as believers in some higher power. That number would have been much higher. But half of the population were entering churches or synagogues or whatever their worship center was called. In 2021 it is less than twenty percent of all Americans attending worship on any given weekend. Some would shrug their shoulders, say it doesn’t matter, 1955 was just a simpler time, 2021 is hard. Faith doesn’t play into it.

But I say different. Our faith is everything. Isaiah 5:20-21 pronounces a couple of woes. ‘Woes’ in the Bible are Baaaaad things. Worse than curses. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

We are in a time where the difference between good and evil is blurred. We are in a time where if we say something is wrong we are condemned and if we say something is good, we are mocked. We are weighted down with our own foolishness.

I would like to think that there is redemption for our society. And there is. But it is not through political change or censorship. Redemption is only through Jesus Christ.