What I Learned From My Dad
By Evelyn A. Buretta
What I learned from my Dad I didn’t realize until later in my life as I reflected on his life and mine. Dad was hardworking, frugal, and persevering. When he got married and started his life away from his childhood home, he worked as a tenant farmer on a small farm of 80 acres. Within a couple of years he accumulated chickens, four work horses, a wagon, plow, planter, and harrow, one cow for milk, and a few hogs.
His goal was to move to a larger farm that had roads leading to a church and school. In 1942 he looked around for such a place. A potential landlord near Lively Grove, Illinois, was picky about tenants. When he asked around for references for my Dad, the landlord was told that Leo Buretta, my Dad, was known for being able to do two days' work in one day’s time. Dad was chosen immediately as the new tenant.
There was a house, a dilapidated summer kitchen, and a rickety fence that could not even hold in the one cow, Dad said. He soon built a farm implement shed, using materials from an abandoned house farther away on this acreage; converted an old summer kitchen into a chicken house; and built a new summer kitchen and new barn for grain storage. Later, he added the concrete dairy and milk cooler sections. His landlord provided nails, an occasional carpenter, and a roof, but nothing for Dad’s labor. Still Dad was obliged to pay $125.00 per year for rent of all the buildings plus one-third of the crops.
There were times when Dad could not pay rent because of poor crops. His landlord offered Dad an interest-only payment plan for those years with the hopes of better crops the next years, providing there would be no drought or grasshopper plague. Dad opted to pay by installment because he did not want to accumulate debt.
When indoor plumbing became popular, Dad’s landlord offered to help with the expenses but was also going to raise the rent. So Dad dug the entire sewer line and septic tank pit by hand and built the bathroom and an additional room.
The landlord never offered to sell the farm to Dad. By carefully saving his money, Dad bought his own farm in Ashley, Illinois, in 1958. He quit dairy farming, all the crop money was now his own, his six children were leaving home one by one, and he felt very financially independent and proud of owning his own land.
Dad’s method of living was paying as he went, buying new items one at a time when he could pay cash, learning how to do necessary work himself, and never buying on credit.
I have lived my life that way also. I have never bought anything on credit except places to live. I started with nothing, learned how to save money, persevere, work hard, and fix things. I feel successful too. Thanks, Dad.
