I remember my grandfather, who was chairman of that committee-I forget what he had done to get to that stage, but he was chairman of agriculture. And the guy who ran the Grange, which is like a collective for farmers across the country, would always begin by addressing the committee by saying, "Senator, for the last twenty years, the crops have been below average." My grandfather would roar with laughter, and the Grange never knew what he was laughing at-the absence of norms, of course.
The narrator recalls memories of their grandfather, who held the position of chairman on a committee related to agriculture, though the specifics of his rise to that role are unclear. During meetings, the leader of the Grange, which represents farmers nationally, would often start by highlighting the poor crop yields over the past two decades, addressing the senator directly.
This statement would provoke hearty laughter from the grandfather, leaving the Grange members confused about what was funny. The humor seemingly stemmed from the disconnect between expectations and reality in agriculture, pointing to an absence of standard norms in crop performance that had not changed over the years.
