Teachers, Gardners: Teachers/Gardeners covers a wide range of topics inlcuding educational philosophy, administrative strategies, man’s relationship to the environment, religion, gardening and retirement. Return to Bitumen is an account of a coal mining community in northwestern Pennsylvania.
Return to Bitumen: Jerry and Shirley Brown work Christmas day. And Easter. And Memorial Day, and Labor Day, and Groundhog Day, and National Peanut Butter Day. Their 62 milk cows don't understand what weekends, holidays, and vacations are all about. Jerry and Shirley farm for a living; 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. and later, 365 days a year. Their investment in land, equipment, and livestock is close to a quarter million dollars; their debts are frequently close to that. Twenty-six dairy farms have gone out of business in "the home valley" in the last 20 years, but the Browns hang on. It is what they know, what they are content with; and they will continue, as long as they can.
Produced by P.J. O'Connell for Penn State Television / WPSX-TV. Rural America Documentary project.
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