NOT DIRT POOR - JUST HARD UP

Hello Neighbor. Glad you stopped by.

Whenever the subject of not having much money or income came up,  Dad always said", We are not dirt poor, just hard up."  And I guess that was the truth.  We lived off the produce of the farm and Dad would cut trees for the pulp mill and  that was a little extra.  Dad had his own dance band and Mom would play the piano. So there was a little there on weekends or special events.  But when you received only $10.00 each for a long evening of playing, it wasn't really much.

So you can understand why doctors and medicine and medical needs was not a priority on our list. I know that we had the usual childhood things.  I  don't remember, of course, having whooping cough when I was quite small. My Mother would tell me about taking me outdoors and hanging me upside down and patting (pounding?) me on the back to help me when coughing.

One day my Grandmother was washing the clothes there in the old farm house. She had finished a load of clothes and went out to hang them on the clothes line.  Again , I don't think I really remember this, but I sure can imagine it.  Gram had one of those old washers with the wringers for squeezing the water out of the clothes. I don't know if Gram had left the wringers going or forgot to stop them. Maybe I just knew what to do to start them. Anyway, I climbed up on a chair and I stuck my fingers in the rollers and you know that once those rollers start nothing much will stop them. If a big wad of clothes went through they could stop it. But my skinny little arms with the soft bones was not enough to stop. I suppose I hollered like the dickens and someone must have come running.  As I said, I don't really remember any of this.  My Mom said she sat in the rocking chair holding me and just rubbing my arm from the top down. Just a rubbing and rubbing. I guess she hoped it would help some of the flesh to push down.  As I got older and my arm filled out more, there was a place on the inside of my left arm where the flesh would puff out. I guess some of the cords in the arm must have been damaged and so there was a space there and the skin could pop out.  When I was an adult and was working with children they always wanted to see my "muscle".  Well, I guess that was probably the most scariest.

I had the usual chicken pox, measles and I'm not sure about the mumps. After I started Kindergarten I began having sore throats.  This time I guess my folks thought we should see the doctor.  Also perhaps we were a little less hard up as we were in the beginning.  I don't remember. All I know is one day I was off to see the doctor.  At the doctor's office the doctor confirmed that my tonsils were quite bad. He set me upon a counter, went to get something as he said, "Those tonsils need to come right out."  I thought he was going to do it right then.  Anyway, I did get them taken out and that was that.

One day at school, the bus came to pick us all up and take us to the school in the main part of town. We were told we were going there to have a shot for something.  Now I am not particularly excited about this.  And you know how boys are. They put on a big show of how much it hurt and I still was waiting for my turn. I sure wished I was first.  When my turn came around I sure gave those nurses a hard time. I squirmed so much I ended up on the floor and being held.  It didn't stop them from giving me that shot.  And to this day I get a little panic when a doctor tells me I need a shot.  But I must say that things have changed and shots aren't as bad as they used to be.

 My father went to the doctor one night on the way to a dance. He had a case of sore tonsils.  He stopped at the old doctor that everyone knew. The doctor gave him a few pills and told Dad to take these.  I don't think the doctor meant to take them all at once, but that's what Dad did. The doctor told him he didn't know what would happen, but Dad was OK and I don't think he had a sore throat again.  When my Dad died in 1999, my mother had to call the local police because there really was no doctor to call since he never went but that once.

Well it amazes me that we survived the farm without any real troubles.  Mary and I used to go all over those acres climbing trees, hiding in places and who knows what else.  I never thought we were hard up. We had everything we needed  and a whole world to play in.