Collins Family Covers Chores While Dad Selves In Legislature
BY RITA SHADE
New Jersey Correspondent
ELMER - What you notice first
is the unadulterated, unpretentious
good humor and affection.
Gathered round the oak table in
the kitchen, the Collins family
trades inside jokes at a Henny
Youngman clip, uninhibited by a
stranger listening in. Dad alter
nately plays straight man and
instigator, with perfect timing.
“Betsy gets up at 6 in the morn
ing to start chores. I get up about
five minutes later,” Jack Collins
says, trying to sneak one by.
The “moooooo” of the family
Jersey cow waifs through the back
door.
“You get up when, Dad?” 9-
year-old son Sean says, feigning
bad-hearing.
“On which day, Dad. Which
year?” chuckles 19-year-old
daughter Joellen, having snared
the fish with her own bait.
Seventeen-year-old Dawn and 10-
year-old Rebecca join in the fun.
The Collins family often has to cover extra farm chores to make time for father and
husband Jack to serve in the New Jersey Legislature. Family members, from left, are
Jack and Betsy, Sean and Rebecca (in truck bed) and Dawn and Joellen.
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“Well, maybe not FIVE
minutes,” Jack grins.
He’s good naturedly excused.
After all, now that he’s serving in
the New Jersey Legislature the
time demands of public office
mean he can snooze a little later in
the morning.
The family round-table
discussion leads to a recitation of
daily chores and responsibilities.
The kids divvy up the evening and
weekend feedings. Betsy Collins -
mom, wife, teacher, student and
cow-milker extraordinaire --
handles the morning feedings and
milking.
“What does Jack do? ”
“Yeah, what do you do?” echo
Betsy and the children, who give in
to a belly-laugh.
“Well,” says Jack. “Every
operation has to have an ad
ministrator.”
The children are fresh-faced,
polite, comfortable giving a public
smooch to dad, a hug to mom. They
talk openly about their feelings of
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growing up on a farm, and how
they think they’re better off tor
having the daily responsibilities
and working hand-in-hand with one
another. And, somehow, through
the hectic pace of the New Jersey
Assembly, campaigns, full-time
jobs and full-time school and full
time farm chores, the family feels
it is closer together than ever
before.
But, that’s getting ahead of the
story.
It was a trip to Kutztown, Pa.,
that did it.
Jack Collins returned from that
beautiful country terrain with the
college basketball team he was
coaching and decided he wanted to
move to a farm.
“I wanted a horse. I wanted to
live on a farm. I told Betsy, she
said okay and we started looking in
South Jersey.”
Betsy and Jack, with two pre
schoolers in tow, rejected a few
handy-man specials and then
quickly settled on a three-acre
*****
homestead here that had
weathered more than a century.
Besides, the ad for the farm said
it offered a “potential tennis court
site.” True. But you’d have to
squint with both eyes, use a con
siderable amount of imagination
and walk gingerly around the
chickens to envision a ball in play.
“I had no illusions about being
able to fix anything,” said Jack
without one denial from his family.
"I didn’t know the difference
between a hammer and a
screwdriver. But I loved livestock.
Watching them grow.”
Needless to say, the tennis court
never came to be.
A neighbor’s steers and a pur
chased pair of piglets pre-dated the
dreamed-of horse, and a certified
Old MacDonald collection of
barnyard animals followed.
Today, 12 years later, much has
changed, yet much is the same.
The children now number four.
The pigs multiplied to 40 and a
prized collection of farm-raised
peacocks strut among the horses,
chickens, two cows, one goat and
one sheep and a pet turkey.
“The pigs are the profitable part
of the farm operation,” says Jack
as he displays a system of gates
and chutes he rigged up to make it
easier to load pigs for market.
But the peacocks are another
story.
“He says he wanted to wait until
he had 10 pairs before he started to
sell the chicks,” laughs Betsy.
“But everytime someone stops by
the road to ask about them and I
send them to the barn, they come
back without any peacocks.”
Betsy and the kids agree; Dad is
just trying to pull the peacock
feathers over their eyes - he
doesn’t want to part with them.
A few years back, Jack hung up
his award-winning coach’s hat at
Glassboro State College and, two
year ago, stepped into the role of
executive assistant to the
president at the college. Betsy
returned to teaching basic math
skills to freshmen at the college
and launched her studies for a
master’s degree, focusing on
computers in the classroom.
And then Jack did it again.
“I came home one night about 2
in the morning. Told Betsy they
wanted me to run for the
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Assembly. I knew she would say
‘okay, do it,’” Jack said.
So, in his team-winning fashion,
Jack garnered the highest votes in
the four-way race for two seats.
His upset victory in the Salem-
Gloucester- Cumberland county
district made him the second
farmer serving in the New Jersey
Legislature.
Jack acknowledges his is a part
time homesteading operation. But,
despite the family levity, their
farming is a serious endeavor. And
these past 12 years have taught
him tremendous respect for those
who devote their lives to
agriculture.
“I don’t think there’s any
tougher profession - the farming
profession. The ultimate controller
is the weather. And I don’t know of
any other industry where you are
TOLD what price your product is
going to be,” says Jack.
Serving as Assistant Majority
Whip and on key committees in the
Assembly, Collins is able to gain
support for legislation aimed at
protecting his primarily rural
district.
Legislation he introduced this
session calls for heavier funding of
the Economic Development
Authority for agricultural loans,
and an advisory board to the EDA
composed of agricultural mem
bers.
Another of his bills, sent to the
Governor for signature, would
reimburse farmers for crops lost
due to confiscated land. The
current New Jersey law com
pensates a farmer for his land and
buildings only.
“We have to decide, as a com
munity, whether we want to keep
this aspect of our heritage. Farm
ing is a lifestlye, a commitment, to
the quality of life. I think we have
to do everything we can to help the
farmer,” he says.
Although the demands of public
life have cut into the time he can
spend on farm chores, and family
suppers have been replaced by
round-table discussions over
breakfast, Jack still has his down
to-earth priorities.
“I told Betsy the first thing I was
going to do with my paycheck from
the Legislature was buy her a
trucH,” he said.
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