In Memory of Sidney Bastian

Sept 12, 1983 marks the day that Sidney Bastian passed away.  His presence is never far away, and he has never been forgotten by his children, grandchildren or great grandchildren.  His memory and his posterity remain ever strong.  This is a picture of Sid with his red Allis Chalmers tractor working the green silage. 

 (His son Barry stands on the silage)

 I was born in 1967, and I was just three when Sid posed for these photos.  Three things I remember about Grandpa Sid.
1) He loved the Harvest:  the smell of the soil and chopped corn, the work of it, and the pleasure of seeing a job well done.

2) He loved his khaki pith helmet. These pith helmets were made from the stem of vascular plants, fitting for a farmer (these were worn originally by British Troops during colonial periods but were adopted by the US Army in the 1880s to protect men in intensely sunny climates)

3) He loved his shovel.  If there is an implement that reminds me of Grandpa Sid it is a shovel.  He would stand as tall and as straight and never bent from labor.  He was as strong as the steel on the broad blade and could move large loads of soil quickly and effectively.  Grandpa Sid said "When it was my time to go,  I want to be found in my field with a shovel."

(Photo; Back row Elaine & Morris Bastian, Sid and DeOn Bastian.  Children: Irene, Lori Bastian Brandt & Shonna Bastian Lappin ; on bike Katherine Bastian Moore)

Sid's Farm on McDermott Street in Nampa could be seen for miles around with the big white upright cement Silo bearing the name BASTIAN.  The farm was a model of cleanliness and beauty.  As a child that silo, holding tons of grain, was part of my identity.   Grandpa Sid like Joseph of old in the Bible "gathered up the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much... before the years of the famine came." Gen 41:48-50  Sid was a farmer with a vision and others followed his lead.  When I squirrel away items for our family food storage, that our prophets have counseled us to do religiously, in my mind I see Grandpa Sid's white silo, and I am deeply grateful for his example and his legacy.