When I was a 10-year-old boy, I had a deep awe for combine harvesters.
I grew up in a village near Arnhem. We lived on the outskirts of the village, near the meadows.
In many meadows, grass grew, and cows or horses grazed. On other plots of land, maize was cultivated.
The maize stood in straight rows in the field. It was fun to play hide-and-seek in it. You just had to watch out for the sharp leaves – I regularly cut my hands and arms on them.
The maize that was grown there was feed for cows. I once tried to make popcorn from it, but it was truly inedible.
When the maize had grown to be considerably taller than myself, towards the end of September, the farmers would begin harvesting their maize fields.
With those enormous forage harvesters. Maize harvesters that ‘devoured' a few whole rows of maize at once, chopped them up, and spat them back out behind the machine. Another, agile farmer drove his tractor alongside, and at exactly the same speed as the maize harvester. He neatly caught the stream of chopped maize in his trailer.
My father explained to me that such a machine cost a lot of money. So much that one farmer couldn't afford it easily. Therefore, many farmers bought one such machine together. When the corn had to be harvested, they would take turns using the corn harvester.
Slim!
I did realise then that I would like to be the farmer whose barn the machine was in. Then I could decide for myself when to cut my maize.
I just found it a bit strange that everyone on our street had their own lawnmower.
We had one, but so did both of our neighbours. And the neighbours next to them too.
You barely ever used the lawnmower either, and you could easily share that too.
The same applies to cars.
You could also share that one.
Apparently, many people are just like me: they’d like to be that farmer who has the silage harvester in the shed. Or in the case of a car: the one who has the car parked outside their door.
As long as cars are still affordable, it will stay that way, I think.
If cars become as expensive as combine harvesters ( a 10-year-old second-hand forage harvester can be had from €100,000), we might start sharing them too.
I didn't hire out lawnmowers, but I did hire out cars.
It's not September yet, but you can rent one.
For tomorrow, for the Easter weekend or for next week.
