It was an ordinary day. Every Sunday, Lancaster's newspaper has a column known as "I Know A Story." Story usually deals with a resident of Lancaster city or county. Story from this past Sunday told about an exchange student, Kirsten Rosendal, now known as Kirsten Bishop (after marriage) who blazed a trail in agriculture. Her story reads as follows: We were a city family in Denmark, until my father became enamored with the country life. He bought a thatched-roof home with several out-buildings. Across from the living quarters was a three-story block building; the basement level had egg-hatching machines. The second level was egg-laying hens and a few happy roosters. The third level was where the day-old chicks were raised to broilers. My city mother donned overalls, and taught herself all the skills needed to run this chicken farm. Our closest neighbor was a real farm with horses, cows, pigs and free-range chickens. I played with farm daughter Betty Olsen, but also helped feed and dung out horse and cow barns as well as hoeing weeds in the sugar beet fields, which were feed for the farm animals. In those days, corn was not raised in Denmark. After several years in the country, our family returned to city life. In the 11th grade, my school promoted the American Field Service youth exchange program. This was started by ambulance drivers from the Second World War who wanted to see peace and understanding in the world - not war. Youth from all over Europe sailed from Rotterdam to New York, and American students spread all over Europe. Mary Wentz, wife of Dr. Henry S. Wentz, volunteered for American Field Service, and checked on my welfare throughout the year. No doubt, my application essay reflected our country life experience. My host family here were dairy farmers. Emory and Clarence Herr also raised cantaloupes, butchered, and made bologna. Along with daughter Marian, now my American "sister," I attended the 12th grade at Lampeter-Strasburg High School during the year 1961-62. When time came to chose courses, the agriculture program and typing seemed exciting, as these were two not offered in my Danish school, and I would repeat this year there. I was called into a small room, across from the main office at L-S. Here, ag teacher George Myers wondered about a girl signing up for a farm-boy class, but eventually allowed me the experience. On a field trip to a local farm, I learned how to judge which cow had the best milk-producing udder, and won a Hoards Dairyman Trophy. Shop was part of the curriculum, and I learned to wield a saw. At that time, WGAL had a Saturday morning show, featuring local schools' ag classes putting on a program so I joined the farm boys and teacher Myers for our turn at the mic. The station encouraged me to return in the future and apply for a job; later, they hired Kim Lemon. I joined the boys for the FFA convention at Penn State. A room was found for me in a woman's dorm. Over the years, seven families from that ag class have met for an annual picnic. Just this past fall, they told me that boys from other schools, attending the Penn State FFA gathering, were jealous that they had a girl along. Now to the impetus motivating this story - the excitement at seeing so many girls at the recent Pennsylvania Farm Show, the vast amount of girls in ag classes, the top FFA officers being young women and numerous female ag teachers at some of our local schools. I have a smile on my face reflecting on all of this. PS - Kirsten's story seems to jump around a bit, but that is how it appeared in the newspaper.
The author lives in East Hempfield Township. She initially came to Lancaster County as Kirsten Rosendal Jensen. After studying physical therapy in Denmark, she returned to Lancaster County in the late 1960s to work as a physical therapist and make the county her home. Welcome to Lancaster, Mrs. Kirsten R. Bishop. Hope you have enjoyed your lifetime in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, best place on earth! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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