Agricultural News
Patti Beth Anderson as 'Willamae' Brings Teachers Down to the Farm
Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:49:55 CDT
Grove Oklahoma's Patti Beth Anderson, better known to many as "Willamae," brought her brand of country humor this past week to the Oklahoma Department of Education's Vision 2020 Teachers Conference in Oklahoma City on behalf of the Ag in the Classroom program. Anderson spoke with Radio Oklahoma Network's Ron Hays at the conference. (You can catch the full interview by clicking on the LISTEN BAR at the bottom of this story.)
Anderson grew up on a farm and employed her talent onstage to bring the rural message to teachers who may not be familiar with the rural lifestyle.
"I know a lot of these teachers are big city teachers and probably don't have things like we did out there on the farm. They don't understand that stuff. And I think that's why the program of Agriculture in the Classroom is kind of important. They're wanting to tell them kids and get them teachers to tell them kids about where their food comes from and where that cotton that their shirt's made out of comes from and when they crack them peanuts up there watching that ball game, you know, where that all might have started 'cause it didn't just show up down there at the grocery store."
As Willamae, Anderson is often known as "the Minnie Pearl of Grand Lake." Her humor helps her build a rapport with the audience. She has opened for such country legends as Ray Price, Porter Wagoner, Kitty Wells and others. Far from the "down-home" appearance of Willamae, Anderson has degrees from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, Oklahoma City University, and Pittsburgh State University in Kansas.
One of her main goals in presenting Willamae to teachers, Anderson said, was to remind them to participate in the Ag in the Classroom program sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Agriculture. She said bringing the farm experience closer to students becomes even more important as fewer and fewer people have experience with what occurs in the production of the food they eat.
"Really, the bottom line for me is not that we're wanting to get all warm and misty-eyed over all this, but the idea that we're Americans. We don't want to be dependent on another country. We don't want other countries to feed us. We want to take care of ourselves-or at least I hope we do. That's what I'm after."
Anderson says the rural experience is not just about producing food, it is about producing men and women of character.
"Farm ethics: It's about hard work. It's about being successful. It's about faith-the faith of a farmer to put that seed into the ground, to put that animal in the pasture. There's no guaranteed paycheck at the end of the week like it is at 7-11."
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