Farmer Flag

The Farmer Flag Story

Mystere - 1963

When John was young his father owned a 40 foot Newporter ketch named Mystere.

Dad was very particular about the image we portrayed down around the docks, so he would instruct the whole family on how to behave around boats.  So he might say: "Now Listen.  When we come into the dock things can go wrong, and that's OK, but no matter what, I don't want any running around and yelling.  That will just draw attention, and people will all think we're just a bunch of farmers!"

Now Dad had nothing against farmers.  Farmers are the salt of the earth and there's nothing they can't fix.  Dad admired farmers.  Dad spent his youth around farms.  To buy his first car, Dad raised calves and sold them to farmers. Dad was a farmer.  Just not on or around boats.  Around boats he was a yachtsman.  In his mind, farmers were the polar opposite of yachtsmen.  Farmers wear rubber boots and overalls. Yachtsmen wear topsiders.  Somehow, yachtsmen never run or yell, and if you did, well, you had to be the opposite...a dreaded farmer!  Bottom line, we learned:  Dammit, we were not going to appear to be a bunch of farmers!

Couple of farmers at the helm of the schooner America

Fast forward a whole lot of years to when we had kids of our own, and boats at the Yacht Club.  We'd be damned if we were going to look like a bunch of farmers, so our kids got a lecture around boats similar to the one Dad dished out. Fast forward a few more years to when our oldest son had kids of his own... Ryan presented us with our very own Farmer Flag. It has a John Deere Green field with crossed yellow pitch forks and a big white F in the middle. We fly it whenever it seems appropriate, like when our friends are seen sailing with their fenders over.  But whenever we screw up we hoist the Farmer Flag then too.