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CTC Family Guide 
Amber Waves 
A detailed description of the play, including things to do and think about, for parents to share with their families.
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A Synopsis of the Story
The sun rises slowly over a Minnesota farm. August. A hot Saturday morning. Deb, the daughter, is already in front of the television - but not for long. Penny, her mom, is already back from the garden - has canned pickles and brought in a bushel of zucchinis - and is on her way to get the clothes off the line. Mike, the dad, has already been working in the fields long enough to need a break. Scott, the son, hasn’t made it out of bed yet - he will if his mother has anything to say about it. They are all due at Wal-Mart for a family photo midmorning. A new calf was born last night. There’s a farm auction down the road. The beans are in trouble, corn is dying in the fields; they need rain bad. Scott left his shoes in the living room - again. But they’ll make it to Wal-Mart just five minutes late.
At Deb’s softball game Penny tells Mike that the bank wants to talk about their loans. What’s to talk about? If you don’t have the money, you get behind in your payments and don’t need somebody to tell you so. Penny wants to take a job in the school cafeteria so there’ll be steady money coming in - the house needs painting, and the kids need school clothes. Mike doesn’t like it, and doesn’t want the town talking about how they’re “in trouble.”
When Deb mows a neighbor’s lawn to earn money for a bike, she begins to discover an unexpected kinship with the old man, Johnny Diamond, even though he sends her home with zucchini and she’s sick of zucchini bread. Deb isn’t like her friend Julie who wants to get away from the farm town and everybody in it. This becomes especially apparent when they visit a carnival. Julie’s family has plenty of money and zero sensitivity to what it’s like to be without it.
Soon there’s no ignoring the financial strain the family farm is facing. Mike and Penny broach the unthinkable subject when Penny suggests selling a piece of land to meet expenses. The tension in the family is palpable and getting worse. Mike is afraid he’s going to lose the land, and a way of life that has been in the family for generations. Penny is afraid Mike won’t accept any help she can give. Deb is afraid her parents will divorce. Scott is afraid his parents don’t trust him with the truth.
Deb’s friendship with Johnny grows. She picks walnuts, shovels snow, and they get to know each other better. They both really love the land, but Deb is beginning to think she never wants to live on a farm - it’s too hard. There are more farm auctions all the time, meaning more farms are going under so the farmers have to sell off their equipment just to begin to pay their debts.
Time around the supper table gets tense. Scott’s been in a fight - no one knows why. Deb chatters to try and get through the meal; she mentions a school play and Penny’s first response is, “What will it cost?” Scott has quit the basketball team in order to get a job at the lumber yard after school. His parents are furious, but Scott wants to help. He fought a boy who said his dad was a “dumb farmer,” that “deserves to lose his farm.” Scott storms out of the house, and now the whole family is at odds. It takes the death of another farmer to bring them back together.
A neighbor who lost his own farm not so long ago has hung himself. It is difficult for the whole family, and frightening, because the scenario is too familiar to be comfortable. However, the funeral and the time around it bring people together. Old rifts heal as people realize their unity in their love of their farms - and the way of life they embrace. Rain comes, and with it hope for a crop after all. Nothing is settled, but as Mike says, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” and we have the faith that this family is a long way from finished.
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| From a website containing color images of contemporary farm life: GO» |
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| During the past 100 years, the world population and its demands on agriculture have increased dramatically. However, during this same period, the percentage of the population directly involved in agriculture has decreased. Advances in science and technology allow for more efficient and higher production to feed the rapidly growing human population. Farmers today are often as comfortable at the keyboard of a computer as they are at the steering wheel of a tractor, but as the population continues to grow at record rates, better ways to feed the world in sustainable ways have to be developed. Visit a farm at the Wells Fargo Family Farm, a part of The Minnesota Zoo. Visit website» |
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"[The earth] smells like a million years ago and it smells like my family and your family and everything we’ve ever loved about this place. But when YOU'RE out here taking a big breath, Deb, I can smell the future. That’s what ties us together - our pasts and our futures - it’s us."
-Johnny Diamond from Amber Waves
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| WHAT A FARMER KNOWS |
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Farmers, like gardeners, learn the rhythms of nature, the character-building virtues of patience, responsibility, sharing, acceptance of loss, and experience the joys of seeing planted seeds and bulbs sprout and eventually bloom. Gardening offers a vehicle to teach many things including: science, language, history, recycling (composting), math (calculating volumes, numbers of plants or seeds, etc.), agriculture, soils, and lots more.
Here are some amazing websites to explore:
 http://www.extension.umn.edu/
http://www.ruralmn.umn.edu/rural/
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/kids_gardening
http://4hgarden.msu.edu/main.html
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/county/smith/kids.html
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