Listen to the Song of the Wind

In the epic that is the winning of the West, no single thing has been as unhonored or unsung as the windmill. The iron horse and the singing wires, Colt's.45 and the Winchester, barbed wire and the stagecoach-all of these and many others have had their idolaters, earning paeans of praise for the part they played in the story of how the West was won, while the poor, old windmill, faithful servant of the wind, singing the song of the eternal wind, lonely figure in the loneliest part of the land, has suffered only neglect on the part of the scribblers. The truth is, the windmill's part in the winning of the West can modestly be described as heroic. Without the windmill the West would not be the West as we know it today and to the legions of windmills scattered throughout the big, empty land do all of us owe a debt we can never repay. One thing for sure: if all the windmills in operation today were to stop, the price of T-bone steaks in the market would be a lot higher than they are now. It is a simple matter of economics. The windmill is the cheapest way man has ever devised to raise water from the earth to quench the thirst of cattle on the range. Wind is a lot cheaper than gasoline or electricity; albeit, not so reliable. Now, the wind has many voices. There is the wind in the pine tops when you are spending a few weeks in the mountains. There is the song of the wind caressing the waves of the ocean when you are vacationing by the sea. But nothing is as musical and soothing as the wind when you are trying to make a living out of a few hundred head of cattle on a small spread in the dry and arid land. The whirling blades of the windmill, attuned to the whimsy of the wind, means there will be water in the tank tomorrow and thirsty cattle will drink. Of course, to fully appreciate all of this you must have spent your youth on a ranch lulled to sleep at night with the creak-creak of the windmill pumping the water out of the good earth, pointing the way of the wind. And there is nothing more ominous than the silence of the windmill when there has been no rain and there is no wind and the land is

But nothing is as musical and soothing as the wind when you are trying to make a living out of a few hundred head of cattle on a small spread in the dry and arid land. The whirling blades of the windmill, attuned to the whimsy of the wind, means there will be water in the tank tomorrow and thirsty cattle will drink. Of course, to fully appreciate all of this you must have spent your youth on a ranch lulled to sleep at night with the creak-creak of the windmill pumping the water out of the good earth, pointing the way of the wind. And there is nothing more ominous than the silence of the windmill when there has been no rain and there is no wind and the land is thirsty and the cattle on the land are thirsty and the sky is clear and lazy blue and you worry and do not know what tomorrow will bring. And then the wind comes up and the windmill becomes a mighty symphony of music, raucous, strident, harsh, but so, so soothing. And you hear the chug-chug of the pump and the sound of the clear, cold water pouring into the tank. So if you want to hear the song of the wind listen, sometime, to its song of the wind in the windmill. Maybe, sometime, some boy or girl coming off of a ranch knowing the true story of the windmill and the wind will put in music the symphony of the wind better than it has ever been told before.

Notes for Photographers

OPPOSITE PAGE "JOY AND MUSIC IN THE AIR; JOY AND MUSIC EVERYWHERE!"

PAINTING BY DE GRAZIA

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