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My first plough was stolen as early as in Soviet times. So I bought another one and brought it home. My wife asked: “Well, why did you bring this plough? What is more, you brought it by your tiny Zaporozhets car! And who is going to drag it, anyway?”
I answered: “Let’s keep it, the plough is not in the way and it will come in handy anyway”.
And it did come in handy later. During perestroika tractors were used to plough the soil. One day they ploughed my lot but since they digged too deep the clay that was under came up. So they covered good soil with clay and for this reason our potatoes were as small as peas for the next three years. Well, the best way to till the land is to gently use a plough. So I asked my wife to hold the horns of the plough and I started dragging it. This way we ploughed all our land. My wife did not even say anything at first. Of course, later she did make a few comments. Anyway, later on I had been using the plough in the same way. Well, I was younger and healthier then.
As for people, they would walk by, watch us and shake their heads. I guess it was strange to see a man drag a plough and a woman follow it. Anyway, the plough came in handy. Later my boys were ashamed of it. They were too embarrassed to drag the plough. What is so embarrassing about dragging a plough? Of course, it takes two or three people to work it since originally a plough is supposed to be dragged by a horse. Later I took the horns off and dragged it by the pole. This is how I ploughed our land. All alone. Since we were at odds with my wife I started tilling the soil alone, all by myself.
Nowadays people would not drag a plough. And our guys drink too much anyway so they are not strong enough to do it.
kd
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