Remember the feelings we had when we pulled into this house? Remember Push ups and Peacocks.... Grandpa pushing up the hay to the cows (with his feet)...just at dusk. Remember what strong muscles grandpa had in his arms and his tie up boots. Remember his belt....Remember what a "great hired man" Grandma always was to him!
What else do you remember?
Sunday, April 02, 2006
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7 comments:
wow.
i remember skunks in the cellar(ty and i, what a hoot!). i remember tractor rides (in the bucket of the loader), i remember the bull in the pen. i remember water from the well in the metal cup on the fence (still the gold standard for water for me), i remember the 3 wheeler, g-ma's chickens (and a dead one), magpies, cow patties, hay stacks, the milk barn (and dean's boots), i remember fig newtons (they were someone else's). the big steel tank with the milk in it. schwan's ice cream in the freezer, fireworks on the driveway. i remember the ditches with tadpoles. flooding the lawn with water(that was so wierd to me). the ding dong of the clock on the wall at EVERY HOUR. i remember G-pa making whatever he needed with his pocket knife. the electric fences (and peeing on them). the smells of the house, the barn, the cows. the coolness of the cellar felt so good during the summer. i remember mud fights in the dried up pond at the end of the driveway. i remember the drive there in the red station wagon. not sleeping the night before because we were so excited to get there (8-10 hrs later!) that was our family vacation for all the summers growing up that i remember.
a lot of it is gone from my memory. i wish i could have been older and appriciated what it was more. i wish i could have learned more from G-pa and G-ma. about life. i know i got a lot from my mother, but i just don't remember ever talking with them there on the farm about how to live. i guess i was too young, and we just lived too far away.
sam
I remember card games at night and Dad getting on the table to breigh like a donkey, I remember getting the broken bales of hay (and how proud Dad was when there were only a few) and families of mice under them that made me run and scream. I remember hoeing beets for a nickel a row and laying in the ditch for rests. I remember getting the work done to go the church ball games. I remember the garden and the gooseberry bush and the mean turkey Mom killed with her hoe and then we had to stop work and dress the stupid turkey. I remember B and B doing chores in flip flops (thongs in those days). I remember weenie roasts in the summer under the willow tree. I remember 'we all work 'til we are all done'. I remember getting off the bus and walking up the driveway and seeing Moms wash on the line...IN ORDER washrags, towels, with the stipes all going the same way. I remember all the field cats drinking milk from the pan when we did calf chores. I remember 'the shop' and the big turning drill thing. I remember Dad's rat trap for "Packy" and then being afraid he would catch him. I remember cow 'graduation' from pen to pen getting the farm equipment to fill as many holes and we could and then us kids being assigned to fill in the rest...and Dad saying..the cows are more scare of you than you are of them...DON'T LEAVE....wave your arms...but don't yell and get the cows excited...just 'gently' drive them. I remember the safety and love I always felt there. I knew I could always come home. I treasure my memories....Arlene
And I remember Mom in an apron...ALWAYS in an apron in the house. And a center piece on the kitchen table. And Mom whistling while she works...and the mirror in the hallway where Dad would take off his t-shirt and say...look at my beautiful body...and we would all act disgusted...but be so proud of our strong Dad. I remember Mom making curtains and fixing up our bedrooms. I remember roller skaking in the basement and putting plaster on the walls to try and finish it up better. I remember Mom making tiny Barbie clothes...and frying potatoes and watching 'As the World Turns' (back when soap operas had couples sleep in seperate beds). Arlene
I remember pushups,(don't think I've had one since), I remember in the morning the smell of coffee, bacon, and eggs. Grandpa watching his little TV. I remember playing in the barn with Redge and others, I can't remember the name of the game. I remember grandma's many many chickens. Tadpoles in the irragation ditch. I remember watching them. I remember the three wheeler. I remember Grandma's bed not a wrinkle in sight.(I'll never be able to make my bed that way) Rachel
I remember the sound of the compressors running and when they were turned off we only had so much time to have the work done in the house. I remember at Christmas looking outside and seeing the snow fall and going with mom and dad to play Santa to the neighbors with popcorn balls with big fat gross gumdrops in the middle. I remember helping dad irrigate(my favorite thing to do)picking up tubes with my foot and racing dad to see who could set them the fastest. WE would each pick a stream of water and race to see who could get done first. I remember baptising the veggies from the garden. I remember Fred (the boggie man) in the basement, who wouldn't hurt you if you went down stairs. I remember singing on the cement step while they were milking. Watching romper room while mom did the laundry downstairs and begging for cookies and milk like they had on TV. I remember the countless company mom fixed lunches for. Mortensen's hauling our hay and THE WRECK, where Barb ran out in to the field because the pickup couldn't go fast enough to go tell dad. He left the tractor running as well.!!
I loved my childhood. bev
Bev. what wreck?
I remember how dad would give us "sex education" talks about how the corn pollunated and grew. I remember "Rob Roy, very dry." about getting the water to the end of the row. I remember thinking Dad had it easy when we irrigated because we had to carry the tubes and he only seemed to be walking up and down the ditch. (he was regulated the water.) I told him I wanted to trade jobs...he let me try...I quickly went back to picking up the cold wet tubes that pinched my arms. I remember walking up the road to the well, looking at all the beautiful fields. I remember cleaning chickens in the old barn and how amazed I was to see and handle a gizzard. I remember when BEv and I drove truck during potato harvest and the big race we had around the mile square. I remember when Steve came to see me there that first time, dad and I played a trick on him and gave him the siphon tube with a hole in it...he worked the whole time trying to get it to pump water. Dad could pick up a tube and lay it in the ditch and with one stroke, bring water. Mom wore coveralls and helped dad in the barn. She was ever bit as much of the dairy operation as he was. She helped him keep the records straight and who needed bred, etc. she fed the calfs. I remember eating breakfast out in the hay field when they had bailed early in the mornings. I remember the dew on the bails and the smell of the hay. We never went on vacations or did much outside of the little farm, but we had happiness and unity and peace. I wish I could go back for just a day and recapture it all....can't write any more...crying too hard. barb
I hope I can create these kinds of memories with my kids. And someday I hope they will think and write about them and cry as they do it.
Redge
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