Hall inductee wonders about today's farm life

If he were a young man today, Bill Frank would probably have to think twice about venturing into farming.

"That'd be a tough decision because you have to be so big (today). You can't be a small farm anymore," Frank said upon his induction yesterday into the Middlesex Agriculture Hall of Fame.

But he'd still do it again.

"I'm an eternal optimist. I always feel if it's the right thing to do, I'll do it."

Now 84 and still living on the farm where he was born, Frank has spent a lifetime in farming. He started Hyde Park Farm Supply Inc. in 1955 and branched out into a feed dealership.

By the 1960s, he manufactured and distributed livestock and poultry equipment to farmers across Canada and the United States.

Frank is a past-president of the Ilderton Agricultural Society and during the mid-1970s was an area MP.

He's seen rough times -- during the economic crunch of 1981, when bank interest rates rose to 23 per cent, he calculated he was spending $1.25 on interest every minute of every hour of every day.