Sussex Family Farms and Cemeteries
Originally my beach community was almost totally agrarian until maybe the last 40 or 50 years when folks discovered the Atlantic Ocean. We still have many acres of corn, wheat and soybeans growing near my home. Most of these fields are still a part of family farms. In fact, Delaware has a program to recognize long-held family farms. The “Century Farm Program” honors families that have kept their farm in the family for over a hundred years. In fact, many of the current 143 Century Farms have been in families for over 150 or 200 years.
As you can imagine, long ago when a resident of a family farm passed away, they were buried on the farm. The location of the family burial plot was most often in a peaceful area, perhaps by shade trees. Even today, burials on private land are permitted in Delaware, but they’re not as common as in the past.
When I moved to Sussex County one of my pastimes was driving some of the country roads near my home to get to know the area. Many of the street names originated from farm families: “Powell Farm Road”, “Peppers Corner Road”, “Parker House Road” among them.
One thing that struck me as unique were the number of private cemeteries I’d see along the side of these country lanes. Some were still well-maintained and others had fallen into disrepair.
One evening Tracie and I took Jack for a walk in our community. There’s a gazebo in a clearing near the boat dock and we headed in that direction. As we neared the gazebo, we saw a small American flag and an object in the ground.
We were shocked to see a monument to the family that, at one time, owned the farm where our community now lies.
There are over 20 family cemeteries in Sussex County, some of which have been listed among the 99 cemeteries identified in the Find a Grave Website.
I doubt that family cemeteries are unique to Sussex County. I can’t imagine they are. But perhaps, if in your travels, you find yourself on a country road in a farming community, look to the side of the road. You may be surprised what you’ll see.
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A few weeks ago, I wrote about inflation and how it can damage an economy. A normal response to inflation is for consumers to accelerate purchasing – buy now because prices will be higher in the future. We’ve seen that in some areas of the economy like real estate.
But what happens when people have already bought all they need for today and for the next year or two? They stop buying. We’re seeing that now in retail. Walmart, Target and other retailers have seen sales slow and inventories explode. Right now, it’s estimated that inventories are 30% larger than normal.
Take that information, add to it the fact that consumers have spent all their stimulus money and are now tapping out their credit cards and I believe you will see that consumer spending will slow. This will further increase inventories.
Retailers will need to reduce their inventories, but considering that they’ve already placed their orders for 2022, inventories will continue to grow, or at least remain larger than ideal levels.
So, what does that mean for us?
If you are in the market for an appliance, TV or other large purchase and you’re not in a hurry, wait for a while. We should start seeing a lot of inventory reduction sales in the next few months.
Keep your powder dry and take advantage of lower prices that should appear soon.
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(Hat tip: Mike G.)
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