By the time Owida Franz was in kindergarten, she already knew what she wanted to do with her life. "When the kindergarten teacher asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I said I wanted to be a home demonstration agent and run barrels at the rodeo," Franz says. "That's all I ever wanted to do."

Most kids give up such childhood fantasies, but not Franz, who at 44 has been a home economist with NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service for almost 20 years.

And where did such dogged, lifelong dedication come from? Her mother, Owaissa Crites.

My mom was the Union County home demonstration agent for 39 years, from 1947 to 1986, Franz says. I basically grew up in the 4-H program. I went with my mom everywhere to 4-H meetings, to home demonstrations, to everything she did.

Franz's earliest childhood memories are intricately tied to Extension.

By the time I was 5, I could say the 4-H pledge, Franz says. Before I was even old enough to be in 4-H, I would do demonstrations in the bathtub, showing how to soap your hair or wash the dog.

Throughout her adolescence, Franz was a 4-H fanatic, participating in every project from baking and sewing to photography and gardening.

Fathers and sons: Clockwise from left, Bruce Hinrichs and his father, John, take a break from roping off mesquite plots on a ranch in Cliff, N.M., in the 1970s. John White, 11, right, poses with his brother, Thomas, 9, in a 1961 photo taken by their father, John White Sr., pictured below with John.

She earned a bachelor's degree in home economics education in 1974 from Eastern New Mexico University, and later a master's degree in the same field from Texas Tech. By 1981, she was the home economist in Lea County, and in 1990, she transferred to Union County, taking over the same post her mother had held for nearly four decades.

There never was any question in my mind about my career, Franz says. It's been a natural, lifelong progression, and I can't imagine ever doing anything else. I guess I just got the bug from my mom.

Like Franz, many of today's county agents and other Extension personnel in New Mexico got the same bug from their parents and relatives, creating an intricate web of family ties among many of the people involved in Extension. The level of intergenerational involvement is striking as sons, daughters, nieces and nephews follow the career paths of their elders.

There is no official tally, but Rosalind Grizzell Extension records specialist says that dozens of New Mexico's 400 plus Extension staff come from families with a history of involvement in Extension.

Agents who come from Extension families say the organization's intergenerational phenomenon is a reflection of Extension's family-oriented lifestyle, which naturally draws most family members into 4-H and other Extension-related activities. In addition, since many of the kids in Extension families grow up on farms and ranches, rural lifestyle becomes an intricate part of who they are as adults, guiding them toward agriculture-related careers that allow them to continue that way of life.

This is a lifestyle that's intergenerational in every aspect, says Bruce Hinrichs, Eastern District Extension director. Growing up in a life of Extension creates generational ties that bind. It's a social phenomenon that's seen over and over again.

Like Franz, Hinrichs was groomed for a life in Extension. His father, John Hinrichs, was the Extension agent in Grant County for nearly 40 years.

"As a child, I remember riding with my dad as he did ranch visits, 4-H visits, demonstration plots and a lot of other things," Hinrichs says. He hauled me with him everywhere. I have lots of pictures of me standing with my dad beside the plots that he visited. I was just with him all the time.

Hinrichs and his two younger sisters spent their childhood and adolescence in 4-H, raising livestock together as a family project.

Hinrichs earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in animal science from NMSU. In 1986, at 23, he became 4-H agent in Curry County. In 1988, he became the county agricultural agent, and in December 1997 was promoted to district director.

All the things I learned from my dad just fit into place throughout my life, Hinrichs says. I've done this all my life, literally. I've been connected to Extension from childhood right through college and up to today.

Others say growing up in Extension influenced them in subliminal ways, gently pushing them in directions they never expected.

At first glance, for example, John White, Extension agent for Doña Ana County, seems to have chosen an independent path. His father, journalist John White Sr. headed NMSU agricultural communications, Extension's media arm, from 1945 to 1979. His mother also was a freelance journalist who wrote historical articles about New Mexico and the Southwest.

Unlike most Extension children, White was raised in the city and he chose a career in horticulture with very little influence from his parents. But his childhood memories are intricately connected to Extension, since he and his brother constantly accompanied their parents on reporting trips around the state.

A family legacy: Home economist Lisa Garcia found she couldn't fight the attraction of Extension instilled by her father, Palemon Martinez, retired Northern District director. Garcia's third cousins, Patrick Torres, left, and his brother, Reynaldo, are Extension agents in Santa Fe and Taos counties, respectively.

My parents turned their reporting trips into family adventures, White says. We'd go all over the state with them as they interviewed farmers, ranchers and Extension personnel. My brother and I would end up posing for photos as set-up subjects.

White says those childhood experiences made him feel right at home in Extension, even though his life as a horticulturist is very different from his parents' vocation.

Moreover, White has pursued a shadow career in journalism, writing weekly columns for years for Lea County and El Paso papers, and hosting many radio and television shows.

He currently co-hosts Extension's weekly television series Southwest Yard & Garden, and he hosts a weekly radio show on xeriscaping for El Paso public radio station KTEP.

After the constant exposure when I was a kid, I guess journalism and Extension is just in the blood, White says.

For some, childhood experiences have drawn them like a magnet into Extension even when they tried to avoid it. Lisa Garcia's father, Palemon Martinez, worked with Extension for 30 years as an agent in Santa Fe and Taos counties and later as the Northern District director. Garcia says that after college, she deliberately moved to Dallas, Texas, to seek new experiences outside of New Mexico.

My dad and all his colleagues said I would wind up in Extension, and I said 'No, I'm going to a big city,' Garcia says.

 But after a few years working retail jobs in Dallas, she came back to New Mexico and is now a home economist with the Santa Fe County Extension office.

I wasn't avoiding Extension. I just wanted a different experience, but I realize now that this is the job I love and want, Garcia says.

Although many Extension children do pursue completely different careers, there are dozens of siblings in the Extension service,
as well as cousins, nieces and nephews.

Many sets of siblings have come through Extension, says Patrick Torres, county agent in Santa Fe whose brother, Reynaldo Torres, is the county agent in Taos. When I started with Extension, there were three sets of siblings working in NMSU Extension at the same time.

Extension royalty: Future Extension home economist Owida Crites Franz was crowned New Mexico State Fair Queen in 1974, at 18. Her mother, Owaissa Crites, a former Union County home economist; sister, Kodie; and late father, N.C.; attended a reception in her honor at Clayton Air Park. In March 2001, Franz took part in Extension in-service training in Las Cruces.

Extension's principal draw may be the opportunity to make a direct, positive impact in people's lives. That is something Extension children say they most appreciated about their parents, and it became instilled in them as adults.

The people in Extension, especially in New Mexico, really belong there because they have a real spirit of community development, a deep desire to help people, Reynaldo Torres says.

It's a matter of family and community values that are instilled in you at home by your family when you're growing up. Couple that with a childhood in a rural community and it all just welds together to mold you into the kind of person who chooses a life in Extension.
And now, nearly all those who followed their parents and relatives into Extension are instilling that same lifestyle in their own kids.

I'm bringing another generation into it, says Garcia, who has an 8-year-old daughter in 4-H and a 2-year-old destined for the same path. They both come with me to my office and to Extension events. They're getting the same exposure I got at their age.

Says Owida Franz: I've drawn all three of my kids into 4-H. In today's modern world, there are so many job opportunities that I don't know if any of them will choose a career in Extension. But they're growing up in 4-H just like I did, and so will my grandkids.