[zdragnar]

Sadly, I never got a chance to ask him about it, though I imagine he probably would have had a few stories of inhospitable hosts or people who wanted nothing to do with them as they came through.

Nowadays, people tend to have more worth stealing - including your identity if you happen to have documents in an easily accessible area of your home. Back then, though, there wouldn't have been much worth taking from a small family farm- no TV, cell phones, electronics other than a radio and light fixtures for the most part (this would have been in the 1930's or 40's, I forget which).

One last stay thought: hospitality and community in general were much more central to people's way of life in rural farming communities then- farmers would help each other out with planting and harvesting, share equipment, every person in the community went to the same or one of two churches, etc. People had to rely on each other just to survive.

[mulmen]

It's been over a decade since I worked on a farm but back then it was common during harvest season to have a tractor and disc hooked up in case a fire broke out. Everyone had one set up because it was in everyone's interest to stop the spread ASAP. If your neighbors field caught fire you'd still run your tractor over to help.