Academic
Review of Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern
Troublesome
Creek: A Midwestern. Dir. Jeanne Jordan, and Steven Ascher. 1995. 1996. Film.
In Association with PBS American Experience.
“Good guys, bad guys, trouble”. Russ and Mary Jane
Jordan use this term to define western films. This definition of a western
movie is also a fitting description of the plot and challenges that played out
in the lives of farmers in the 1980s and 90s as thousands of American farmers
lost their family farms. Troublesome
Creek: A Midwestern by Russ and Mary Jane Jordan’s daughter Jeanne offers a
great account of the struggle that the Jordan family went through as they tried
to hang on to the farm that had been in their family for nearly 4 generations.
Although the fate of their farm ends up being fairly unique, the film offers a great
perspective into the plight that faced farmers across the nation during that
time period.
Throughout history farming has pulled on the hearts
and emotions of man. There’s always been a strong desire in people to own their
own land, to provide for themselves, and hopefully to be able to make a profit
doing it, but few people actually understand the reality of farm life. As
Jeanne Jordan puts it, “People love to idealize farm life. They think it is
wholesome and simple”. Most people that grow up farming understand the luck and
chance that exists with farming, and the hardships associated with that chance,
along with the complexities of everyday life as farmers try to keep a farm
alive. Those not exposed directly to farming have difficulty seeing that even
“life and death are a matter of chance” on the farm, and that uncertainty,
toil, and stress are all part of a “normal” life of the farmer.
Jordan summed up her family as having “incredible
luck, incredible timing, and teetering on the edge of disaster”. How true those
words are when one looks at the life of a farmer. Markets are hardly ever
predictable, Mother Nature is less so, and the farmer is at the mercy of both
of those forces in the struggle for success. This struggle is brought to life as
we look at farming at the close of the 1900’s. Farmers enjoyed nearly 40 very
successful years from the 1950s to the early 1980s. During those years farmers
were able to expand their operations, made possible by banks that were willing
to lend to those farmers to provide for that expansion and further success.
Nationwide, this began to change in the 1980s as first prices crashed, followed
by banks changing policies on lending.
Jordan likens this change to the western, as her
parents, the good guys, struggled to save the farm that had been in their
family for nearly 100 years. Not only had dealing with the bank began to be
difficult, the bank also changed ownership, and their new loan officer now
seemed like more of a “hired gun” than someone that was there to help them keep
their farm alive. Russ and Mary Jane even went so far as to say that they felt
“ambushed” just as the cowboys in their western movies.
For most family farms, examples like this are not the
first time that someone has fought for a family farm throughout a family’s
history of ownership. Even Jeanne Jordan shared the example of her
great-grandfather fighting off the “Crooked Creek Gang” that threatened their
way of life in the farm’s early life. While not all farmers fought gangs to
keep their farms alive, farmers have fought other battles such as drought, crop
failure, pests, land disputes, water rights ownership, and even economic
hardships such as the Great Depression. It seems that this “good guy, bad guy,
trouble” scenario of western movies has played out over and over for farmers
throughout history. It becomes clearer to see why families fight to the bitter
end to keep their family farms, even when the odds seem insurmountable. There’s
a great sense of duty to keep the farm in the family and keeping it productive,
and also probably a great fear of shame of being the one who lost it. Jordan
shares the experience of her parents visiting the farm that they rented until
the time came for them to move onto the family farm and to take over operation
from Russ’ father. Visiting their old farm was hard on the family. In fact,
Jordan explains that her family stayed away from the farm for 15 years in order
to “remember it as it was”. It was easy to see that Russ and Mary Jane had a
hard time visiting the farm and seeing it in a rundown state. This really
increases the understanding to why they chose to fight the bank and the
challenges to keep their farm in their family, rather than simply giving up and
selling out to satisfy the bank debt.
As those that idealize farming see the peace and
simplicity, it would probably come as a shock to them to see where the minds of
those that grow up in a farm life tend to wander to. Jordan describes the farm
being everything when young, but as a teenager “town” became everything, and
the goal seemed to be more of getting away from the farm. This makes a lot of
sense. Jordan describes the life of her parents on the farm, which is fairly
typical of the farmer and his wife. She explains that Russ, the farmer, has little
time to worry as work requires his full attention, and he works to avoid the
worry as well. Mary Jane, the farmer’s wife, was dubbed “the family worrier”. She
was the one that took care of the bills, the bank, and put on the face of
confidence in order to keep the family calm and steady.
How true this “Midwestern” struggle is. Growing up
when my own family went through losing our farm I truly never understood that
we were in trouble until it was gone. Jordan also mentions that through her
mother’s calmness she never knew the trouble either. Maybe the calmness that
the farmer and his wife display is why those not acquainted with farming view
farming with that simplicity and peacefulness.
Jordan points out that in a western, while the bad
guys find some success, the good guy eventually wins. But as she says, “since
when have westerns ever been true?” One could only wish the western would ring
true in the case of the farmer and the crisis of the 80s and 90s. While
Jordan’s family found a unique way to ensure the survival of the farm enabling
it to stay in the family, most families lost during this crisis. Jordan points
out that quite often these farms end up in the hands of a wealthy neighbor that
can afford to buy them. While those that idealize farm life might dispute
farming hardships and loss, Jordan points to evidence that is hard to dispute
when it comes to these hardships. Jordan talks about families leaving as they
sell farms and towns shrinking. This has happened all across the country, not
just Iowa. This also hit me hard personally, as I have watched my own hometown
dwindle with the loss of families as the family farm has gone to the wayside.
The schools in my hometown teeter on the edge of closing today. What will the
fate of my hometown be?
I can only hope that in the future the good guy will
continue to find a way to win.
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