‘160 Acres’ of memories

NORTHFIELD, Minn. — From a long day’s work unloading 1,200 small square bales to the memories of bringing home sweet corn silage in a snowstorm, Tony Fisher has encapsulated his childhood stories on the dairy in his memoir, “160 Acres.”

“My main goal is to document a way of life that is disappearing,” Fisher said. “I want to document the joy and the pain that goes along with that kind of life. … I think you need to pass it down to the next generation so that they can learn from it.”

Fisher’s book brings a sitting-after-dinner storytelling style to readers with his stories about growing up on a dairy farm. Fisher’s family had 30 cows that they milked in a tiestall barn on a 160-acre farm near Veseli. The family was self-sufficient, with Fisher and his three siblings providing much of the needed labor.

“We were probably considered poor, but we didn’t know it, and we didn’t care,” Fisher said. “We were happy. We had everything we needed, plenty of good food, and lots of work, of course, and a little bit of fun.”

Fisher originally started writing down his stories for his young grandson, who lives in Minneapolis. However, after others read them, they encouraged him to publish them.

“(My grandson) is very disconnected from farms and agriculture,” Fisher said. “Someday I’ll be gone, and I hope that my stories will mean something to him. I wanted to write down my experiences of growing up that way so that he could hear about it from his grandpa.”

Fisher chose his title to highlight the fact that at the time he grew up, 160 acres was enough to support a family of six.

“We all were farmers, and that was very much the culture of the community,” Fisher said. “Then, slowly, it started changing. Agriculture started getting bigger. It got bigger, but I don’t think it got better.”

The book is written in honor of his dad, Ben Fisher Jr., who dairy farmed his whole life before passing from cancer.

“He was such a big influence in my life,” Fisher said. “(He was) such a good father, and everything that he did, he did to try and make us better kids, better adults.”

In his book, Fisher looks back on a childhood that, like many others of his time, was filled with the work of adults and the realities of life.

“We did things at 12 that most grown men never do, but we were expected to do it,” Fisher said.

Growing up in a time before farm safety was heavily considered meant Fisher was operating equipment, using a welder and working alone with their cattle — all as a child.

Yet, there is a fondness for his childhood and the joys it had, which Fisher weaves into the stories, like the fun of riding on the cattle or stolen moments sneaking off to drive their dad’s school bus when he was not looking.

“We just made fun on our own,” Fisher said. “Part of the story of the book is working hard but also playing hard as kids.”

His favorite story he chronicles is about asking his dad for a pocketknife and the pride and excitement when he eventually received his very own Barlow pocketknife, Fisher said. He still carries the knife occasionally in memory of his dad.

“(That knife) just opened open new doors for me,” Fisher said. “I could cut my own bale twines. All of a sudden, I was trusted as more of a grown-up.”

Through his stories, Fisher said he hopes his readers will learn life lessons about where their food comes from and respect for guns and life, something he learned by necessity.

“A lot of the generations growing up today do not get that kind of experience,” Fisher said. “You don’t witness life and death that closely, and you don’t have to be the cause for death.”

Fisher decided to self-publish his book through Amazon to retain control of the process. Fisher’s wife, Kathy, who is an accountant with an eye for detail, helped him with the editing.

“I didn’t want to be at the whims of an editor and whatever their market thought they could support,” Fisher said. “I didn’t care if I sold 1,000 copies of my book; I just wanted to get it out.”

His sister, Lucy Fisher, did the illustrations and all his siblings helped with story details and fact checking.

“We all have done a lot of remembering and laughing,” Fisher said.

Neither Fisher nor his siblings made a career of agriculture, although his rural home, a few horses and some hayfields still keep Fisher connected.

“If you grow up farming, it’s in your roots,” Fisher said. “I don’t think it ever leaves.”

Fisher spent a 35-year career working as a zookeeper at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. Fisher said the zoo offered similarities to farming.

“In farming, of course, we raise (animals) as livestock for food, but in a zoo, we raise them so people can look at them,” Fisher said. “It seemed like a very nice tradeoff for me. I didn’t have to worry about milk production and profit and loss, just had to worry about keeping them alive and keeping them healthy and keeping them from escaping.”

Fisher is currently writing a book about his career at the zoo, which he intends to finish in the next six months.

Fisher said he hopes “160 Acres” will spark story swapping among those who grew up similarly.

“I just want people to read my stories,” Fisher said. “I hope they enjoy them, and I hope that their kids can learn something from them about the way of life back then and maybe some life lessons.”