Hello Neighbor. Glad you stopped by.
Well, we sure had a lot of fun and adventure exploring all the different parts of our 140 acre farm. As we got older we began to expand our adventures by exploring further away. The dirt road that ran across the bridge over the little brook that ran down in the woods behind our houses led to many homes and places to visit. When we were really quite small, I remember my Grandmother and my Mother used to walk that road for a mile or so to visit with a ladies group that met on one of their homes. So as we grew older we would walk that road and a couple of others that veered off that road.
Other times we would leave the dirt road at the bridge and cut up the hill through a man's apple orchard. We would explore the woods and fields beyond the orchard. We found a new patch of checker-berries. We knew where all the patches were in our woods, but here was a new one. It was exciting if you were like us and loved the little tiny berries or chewing on the new leaves.
Then of course there was the main road that was two miles long and was the one that led to North Wayne where the one-room schoolhouse was. Also a big old store that didn't have much to sell in it but it was a place we checked out. At one time it was run by my great Aunt Mary who lived in the house itself. There was a huge room over the store part. When we had family reunions, it was a great room for all of us to eat and we little kids had fun running through the house.
During summer time we were lured to make the long walk so that we could go swimming at the dam. We also got to visit with the town kids. Sometimes a bunch of us would take off and just walk some place. A road around the pond. A road to a camp. A road around the other side of the pond that went to another small town if we had the energy. Or if we went straight where the road crossed the water below the dam, we would go up the hill. There was a family up there that had some horses. My cousins loved horses so we walked up there a few times.
As I looked back over those years, I can't believe how much territory we could cover. And there was not a thing in the woods or anywhere that would hurt us or scare us. What a difference it is today. I have been back there again and I would not dare to try to walk the 2 miles to North Wayne. You can never know today who is driving by. Well, it just tires me out thinking of all the walking we did but it was our entertainment and fun. After all, I was just a simple farm girl.
Stop again sometime and we will chat some more.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
THE WORLD WE HAD TO PLAY IN
Hello, Neighbor
My last blog "Not dirt poor, just hard up" I ended with the world that my sister and I had to play in. So I thought today I would expand on this world of ours that we were so lucky to have. The first part of our world consisted of the 140 acres that was our farm. This provided us with many,many places to investigate and to explore. We could enter this world of wonder from the back door of our grandparents old farm house. Just a few yards from the door we would go through an opening in a big rock wall. Here was a field of trees, bushes, etc. We would continue going straight across and go through another opening in another rock wall. If we made a left, we could go down the hill and into some woods. There was this wonderful spring that had been rocked in and was about 6 to 8 feet long. It was always full of cool clear spring water. I don't think it ever went dry. There was a small pump that would pump the water all the way across a large field, up a sort of hill and across the road and continue up into the main floor of the barn to provide water for the cattle. This amazing little pump would start by just holding your thumb on a little thing and that would start the pump. Thn when the barrel in the barn was full you would just stop the pump by pushing the little thing. I'm not very well informed on this little pump that must have been a hundred years old or more. Can you imagine digging a small ditch all that distance to get water into the barn? It sure beat carrying it all the way by a pail,that's for sure.
Anyway, going back to where we left off, we would continue straight until we hit the cow path and followed that through the woods. Soon we would come to an old, old apple orchard. It, too, must have been a hundred years old. There were about a half dozen apple trees and thy still produced apples!!! And we did not have to spray or anything to deal with all the bugs that attacks our orchards today. Well just beyond the orchard, on the right there could be seen what appeared to be an old, old cellar where you could see that an old house must have been there once upon a time. I expect that that was the original farm house. Well to keep going we would have to cross a fence and enter a field of grass. There was an old house there, too. What was left of it. The walls were all gone, but there was a set of stairs still left to the upper floor. We would go up there, but it probably was not the best of ideas. I think now that house, or what was left of it, has been now demolished because of safety concerns.
Keeping on we would cross another fence and come to someones driveway. We'd walk down the driveway and there was our destination. Some friends to play with. The main road into the town of Wayne went by there and other friends live a few house down. It was probably a good mile to walk all that distance.
Going back to the our farm house, and going through the open in the rock wall again, this time turning right. We would really get into the real woods part of the f arm. My dad cut a lot of trees there and sold them to pulp mills. But we would just keep walking in one direction and we would soon come out onto a paved road. There was a house there that we would visit once in a while. the lady that lived there was a teacher at the high school that my kids went to when I grew up and had a family. Just by her house there was a road that had been discontinued for years. But it was passable for walking. This road went down the other side of our farm. So often we would make that round trip and be back at the house.
Down behind the barn and our own house there was a fence. That was the end of our property. But we would climb through that fence and down in the woods there was this neat little brook. We would play along it and walk up the brook to the bridge and take the dirt road back to our house.
In the winter time we would go up into the area where Dad would cut wood because there was a small frog pond. It would freeze over and my sister and I would get out our skates and skate around the little pond. One Thanksgiving Day we had gone out there after dinner to skate. We were enjoying ourselves when we heard this great big "growl". Now we knew that there was nothing in those woods that would hurt us. So I figured out that it must have been our Dad who snuck up to try to scare us. Sure enough, he came out from behind a tree.
We sure had a lot of adventures on our 140 acres. But that was just a small part of our world. I will have to share the other part at another time.
Stop by again sometime and we'll have another chat.
My last blog "Not dirt poor, just hard up" I ended with the world that my sister and I had to play in. So I thought today I would expand on this world of ours that we were so lucky to have. The first part of our world consisted of the 140 acres that was our farm. This provided us with many,many places to investigate and to explore. We could enter this world of wonder from the back door of our grandparents old farm house. Just a few yards from the door we would go through an opening in a big rock wall. Here was a field of trees, bushes, etc. We would continue going straight across and go through another opening in another rock wall. If we made a left, we could go down the hill and into some woods. There was this wonderful spring that had been rocked in and was about 6 to 8 feet long. It was always full of cool clear spring water. I don't think it ever went dry. There was a small pump that would pump the water all the way across a large field, up a sort of hill and across the road and continue up into the main floor of the barn to provide water for the cattle. This amazing little pump would start by just holding your thumb on a little thing and that would start the pump. Thn when the barrel in the barn was full you would just stop the pump by pushing the little thing. I'm not very well informed on this little pump that must have been a hundred years old or more. Can you imagine digging a small ditch all that distance to get water into the barn? It sure beat carrying it all the way by a pail,that's for sure.
Anyway, going back to where we left off, we would continue straight until we hit the cow path and followed that through the woods. Soon we would come to an old, old apple orchard. It, too, must have been a hundred years old. There were about a half dozen apple trees and thy still produced apples!!! And we did not have to spray or anything to deal with all the bugs that attacks our orchards today. Well just beyond the orchard, on the right there could be seen what appeared to be an old, old cellar where you could see that an old house must have been there once upon a time. I expect that that was the original farm house. Well to keep going we would have to cross a fence and enter a field of grass. There was an old house there, too. What was left of it. The walls were all gone, but there was a set of stairs still left to the upper floor. We would go up there, but it probably was not the best of ideas. I think now that house, or what was left of it, has been now demolished because of safety concerns.
Keeping on we would cross another fence and come to someones driveway. We'd walk down the driveway and there was our destination. Some friends to play with. The main road into the town of Wayne went by there and other friends live a few house down. It was probably a good mile to walk all that distance.
Going back to the our farm house, and going through the open in the rock wall again, this time turning right. We would really get into the real woods part of the f arm. My dad cut a lot of trees there and sold them to pulp mills. But we would just keep walking in one direction and we would soon come out onto a paved road. There was a house there that we would visit once in a while. the lady that lived there was a teacher at the high school that my kids went to when I grew up and had a family. Just by her house there was a road that had been discontinued for years. But it was passable for walking. This road went down the other side of our farm. So often we would make that round trip and be back at the house.
Down behind the barn and our own house there was a fence. That was the end of our property. But we would climb through that fence and down in the woods there was this neat little brook. We would play along it and walk up the brook to the bridge and take the dirt road back to our house.
In the winter time we would go up into the area where Dad would cut wood because there was a small frog pond. It would freeze over and my sister and I would get out our skates and skate around the little pond. One Thanksgiving Day we had gone out there after dinner to skate. We were enjoying ourselves when we heard this great big "growl". Now we knew that there was nothing in those woods that would hurt us. So I figured out that it must have been our Dad who snuck up to try to scare us. Sure enough, he came out from behind a tree.
We sure had a lot of adventures on our 140 acres. But that was just a small part of our world. I will have to share the other part at another time.
Stop by again sometime and we'll have another chat.
Monday, April 11, 2016
SUNDAY DRIVES
Hello Neighbor. So glad you stopped by.
Living on the farm and trying to keep up with all the odd jobs that farm living requires, there's not much time left for entertaining our-selves. So quite often after the morning church service and dinner, we would all pile into the car and go for a ride. Usually it was no place special, but at least it was a break from the farm chores.
While my sister and I were quite young during this time of Sunday drives, we had our own way of entertaining ourselves as we rode along. It's a wonder we didn't drive our parents crazy with our foolishness. Mary would sit on one side of the car and I would sit on the other. We would watch out our window to see if we could see a brook, or pond or any kind of water. Once our eyes spied the water on our side, the one with water would holler out" Water, water, water". We would keep it up until the water disappeared. Again as soon as I saw some on my side of the road, I'd begin to holler,"Water, water, water". We'd keep this up for quite a ways. Sometimes it would be enough water just to get out one "Water", and that would be all. I don't know where we got that idea, but it was entertaining to us.
Another game we used to play was watching for cows. We'd each count the cows we saw on our side of the car and when we came to a cemetery we had to bury them all and then start over again.
I expect we thought up some other kinds of games to play but these two are the ones I remember the most. I can hear us just as if it were only yesterday. "Water, water, water, water, water, water."
Stop by again sometime and we'll chat again.
Living on the farm and trying to keep up with all the odd jobs that farm living requires, there's not much time left for entertaining our-selves. So quite often after the morning church service and dinner, we would all pile into the car and go for a ride. Usually it was no place special, but at least it was a break from the farm chores.
While my sister and I were quite young during this time of Sunday drives, we had our own way of entertaining ourselves as we rode along. It's a wonder we didn't drive our parents crazy with our foolishness. Mary would sit on one side of the car and I would sit on the other. We would watch out our window to see if we could see a brook, or pond or any kind of water. Once our eyes spied the water on our side, the one with water would holler out" Water, water, water". We would keep it up until the water disappeared. Again as soon as I saw some on my side of the road, I'd begin to holler,"Water, water, water". We'd keep this up for quite a ways. Sometimes it would be enough water just to get out one "Water", and that would be all. I don't know where we got that idea, but it was entertaining to us.
Another game we used to play was watching for cows. We'd each count the cows we saw on our side of the car and when we came to a cemetery we had to bury them all and then start over again.
I expect we thought up some other kinds of games to play but these two are the ones I remember the most. I can hear us just as if it were only yesterday. "Water, water, water, water, water, water."
Stop by again sometime and we'll chat again.
Monday, April 4, 2016
MY DAD - A MUSICAL MAN
Hello Neighbor. Glad you stopped by.
Today I thought I would tell something about my Dad. Dad passed away 1/9/99. As I was going through some of his papers and music, I came across his story that he wrote himself. I used that in his Memorial Service. His story that I found would be more interesting than one I could come up with. So this is his story of how he became "a musical man".
Today I thought I would tell something about my Dad. Dad passed away 1/9/99. As I was going through some of his papers and music, I came across his story that he wrote himself. I used that in his Memorial Service. His story that I found would be more interesting than one I could come up with. So this is his story of how he became "a musical man".
THE SAGA OF A MUSIC MAN
"I crawled along the long hallway, eager to reach the doorway and the pleasing sounds the wind made through the screen door. It was summer and, as our house was high on a hill, the wind rising and falling made sweet music to my ears. Reaching the door I pushed my face to the screen which had a pleasant taste to my lips and seemed to make the lovely sounds even better. I made daily trips to the door until one day to my surprise I heard other sounds even more thrilling coming from the parlor. I toddled along as fast as my unsteady legs could take me.
On entering the parlor, there was my mother making beautiful sounds on the piano. I stood there listening to the fascinating sounds until my mother left the room. I cautiously moved closer to the piano, but found I could not reach the place where my mother made the music come from. I always went into the parlor whenever my mother made the wonderful music. One day much later, I finally could reach and touch the keys with my tiny fingers. When I touched the keys I could make the sounds myself. My mother let me play along with her. Gradually I grew taller and soon by standing on tiptoe I could see the shiny keys. I was so delighted to find that I could make the low sounds and high sounds myself.
When I was 12 years old I went to see the big parade on Labor day where I heard the band coming down the street. I was overwhelmed by the exciting music and fascinated by the slide trombones blaring away in the front row. My fate was sealed that day. Though I was doing well on the piano with my mother's help, I told her I had to have a trombone. We took the Sears & Roebuck catalog and turned to the musical instruments and there it was in all it's glory.
I soon found I could blow the horn OK. After a few days my father quit complaining about the noise. Checking with the piano I soon located the positions of the chromatic scale with enough notes to play the average tune. Then I went to the rehearsals of the town band and sat beside the 1st trombone player who, fortunately, was playing treble clef music. As I already knew the value of notes I could follow the music pretty well.
Soon the director let me bring my horn and sit in the last chair. I'd start out with them, but if the music got hard, I would lay off, but follow with my eyes and pick up now and then where it was easier going. I started playing scales faster and in a couple of months was really playing a lot of horn. Soon the director let me play 1st trombone, too and would pick me up for rehearsals."
And that was how my Dad became a self-made musical man.
Stop by again sometime and there will be more about my Father, the Musical Genius.
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