“I just had the strangest call,” Donna said to her husband Dale as she walked from her fitness room into the kitchen, where he was drinking coffee and reading the Western Producer. Donna had her phone in one hand and was using the other to wipe sweat from her forehead with a faded towel.
“Oh yeah?” Dale said, not lifting his eyes from the classifieds.
“It was Tara Hunter. She said she’d heard it from her sister-in-law.”
“Heard what?” Dale said, finally looking up at his red-faced wife. “Good grief! You must have really given that treadmill a workout.”
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Donna looked down at the remaining half of a chocolate chip muffin on the plate in front of Dale and raised one eyebrow.
“Yeah, all right. I should get some exercise too,” Dale said. After the Hanson’s early harvest, Dale and his son Jeff had spent a few weeks cleaning up and fixing machinery, repairing their cleaning plant and doing some fall field work. But the long season had left Dale with free time.
“What did Tara want?” Dale asked.
“Her sister-in-law was at the bank, and she heard the bank manager telling someone that we’re winning the Golden Plow award this year.”
“What?”
“You know. That Chamber of Commerce award. Farmer Appreciation night.”
“That can’t be right. Heck, we haven’t even gone to that dinner for at least five years.”
“That’s what I said,” Donna answered. “But Tara seemed sure.”
“Wouldn’t the chamber have called us?”
“I don’t know,” Donna admitted. “It’s been so long since we’ve gone I can’t remember if the winners looked surprised.”
“Somebody would’ve told us they nominated us,” Dale said.
Before Donna could answer there was a knock on the door and their son Jeff came in, taking off his coat and boots on his way to join them in the kitchen.
“Have you already heard?” Jeff asked. “Shawn Peterson called. He said to tell you congratulations.”
“Huh,” Dale said. “Guess we’d better round up some tickets for this shindig.”
“Way ahead of you,” Jeff said. “FCC just called to offer me some. I asked for eight, so the kids and Grandpa and Helen could come too.”
With only two days before the Farmer Appreciation banquet, the Hansons didn’t have much time to prepare. They gathered later that day to make plans.
“You’ll need a speech,” Jeff’s wife Elaine told her in-laws.
“I hate public speaking,” Donna said, looking worried. “Can you give us a hand?”
“It’ll have to be today,” Elaine said. “I need to go to the city tomorrow. Jenny has lots of cute dresses, but Connor doesn’t have anything to wear that doesn’t have a cartoon on the front or a hole in the knee.”
“That kid grows faster than zucchini,” Dale said.
“No kidding,” Elaine said. “But he needs something that will look nice in the pictures.”
“Pictures?” Donna asked.
“Well… ,” Elaine hesitated. “I guess I just assumed you’d want all of us in the pictures. We don’t have to… ”
“What pictures?”
“At the banquet tomorrow. There’s going to be photographers. Taking pictures for the paper. For the city website.”
“Oh no,” Donna said. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She texted her hairdresser for a last-minute appointment.
By banquet day the Hansons were ready to go. Connor was dressed in a brand new button-up shirt, even wearing a tie. Jenny had been fully scrubbed and was as clean as a four-year-old could get, although it was probably temporary.
With her new fitness regime, a new dress and a new hair colour, Donna looked great. Elaine had new shoes, and Jeff and Dale were both wearing suits. Dale had even waxed the SUV.
In town, Dale’s father Ed and his girlfriend Helen met them at the hall door.
“I’m proud of you,” Ed said, looking his son in the eye. “You’ve done good work. Nobody deserves this award more than you.”
Dale wasn’t generally one for emotions, but suddenly he was blinking back tears. “I had a great start, Dad. We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for you.”
“That’s in the speech,” Donna said. “All of you are in it. I’m not sure Dale and I are going to be able to read it without crying.”
“We’d better get in there,” Dale said, looking at his watch. “Don’t want to miss it.”
Once they’d hung their jackets in the coatroom and moved to the door of the banquet hall, the Hansons looked around at the crowded tables.
“This is a lot of people,” Dale said, nervously fingering the speech in his pocket.
“Doesn’t look like there’s any reserved seats at the front,” Jeff said.
“There’s room for us over there,” Elaine said, pointing to a space in the middle of the room.
“Excuse me,” said a man in a black jacket with a CTV logo on the back as he pushed by Dale. He was carrying a huge camera, heading for the back of the hall.
“I never thought of TV,” Donna said, looking a little pale.
Dale looked up at the podium on the stage at the front of the room. He swallowed hard, feeling a little dizzy. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this,” he said.
The Hansons made their way to the seats Elaine had spotted. Once they were settled in, Jeff stood up. “I’ll get us some drinks. What does everyone want?” The adult Hansons were quick to put in their drink orders, especially Donna and Dale, and Jeff turned to make his way to the bar. Then he sat back down, rested his elbows on the table and lowered his head into his hands.
“What’s wrong?” Elaine asked.
Jeff pointed discretely. “See that table at the front? Right by the stage?”
They all swiveled their heads.
“What about it?” Ed asked.
“I know that family. They farm about 30 miles on the other side of town. The parents are Dale and Donna Schultz.”
Dale, Donna and Elaine’s jaws dropped. They looked at each other in stunned silence. Until Donna started to giggle.
“At least we won’t have to speak at that podium,” she said.
“I don’t understand,” Helen said.
“Committee picked the wrong family,” Ed said.
“We should have realized it wasn’t us when nobody from the chamber called,” Dale said.
“As far as I’m concerned, you two deserved it,” Ed said to his son and daughter-in-law.
“I agree,” Jeff said.
“Does this mean we don’t get a prize?” Connor asked his mother.
“Being part of this great family is a prize, Connor,” Elaine said. “But Grandma and Grandpa aren’t going to be on TV.”
“We still get dessert, right?” Connor clarified.
Within a few minutes, the crowd had been quieted, the grace had been said, and the Hansons were in line at the buffet table, loading their plates.
Later, Dale and Donna Schultz took the podium gracefully. They gave a well-rehearsed speech, talking about their family “team” while looking poised and relaxed at the same time.
“That’s just how we would’ve done it,” Dale nodded.
“Maybe somebody will nominate you next year,” Ed said, looking thoughtful.
Donna squeezed Dale’s knee under the table. “I feel like we already won,” she said.
