There’s an old joke among my Farm Progress editorial colleagues that two cookies are indeed better than one, but if they’re stuck together, they’re definitely one. It counts. And our math is fine.

This whole conversation goes back to an editorial camper at the Farm Progress Show close to 10 years ago. My son, Nathan — my faithful FPS companion every year since before birth — was maybe 8 or 9, and he was helping himself to the chocolate chip cookies that our editorial director Willie Vogt’s wife, Bobbi, makes. (They’re to die for, especially oatmeal raisin, especially frozen.) I told him just one, because we were headed to dinner soon. I looked over and he was munching on two frozen cookies.

“What?” he said. “They were stuck together!”

Pam Golden, one of the editors back then, downright loved that line of thinking. He’d found a cookie loophole! Two cookies for everybody!

I absolutely love how my work family has taken in my family, especially Nathan during the show. He’s a senior in high school this year, and going to FPS is a non-negotiable in his world. He enjoys my golf cart, and he loves all the equipment. He only got lost that one time, and his dad claims he knew where Nathan was the whole time, though I have my doubts. But all’s well that ends well.

The Farm Progress Show is a family affair for a whole lot of Midwestern farm families, and I’m glad it is for us, too. Still, I don’t know how this will look next year. College might put a damper on our FPS trip. I’m not sure.

Either way, I hope we have a lot more of these trips in our future. And maybe, if we’re lucky, a two-pack of cookies.

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