Random Recollections IX

10/21/08

IX

My dad always liked the Thompson relatives who mostly lived in and around Albert Lea, but he especially enjoyed contact with his mother’s people who had moved from Albert Lea to Rockford, Iowa and later on, after his mother died, to the Muscatine, Iowa area. His uncle, Earl, lived in Des Moines and was always a welcome guest whenever he would visit. He was a brakeman on the Rock Island Railroad and my dad had always wanted to work on the railroad rather than be a farmer.
After Grandpa Thompson died in 1941 my dad applied to the railroad, but was told he was too old (52). I’m sure he felt good about the fact that he stayed on the farm and helped his dad as he was asked to do, but he never got to do the work he wanted so much to do. He learned to be a good farmer; he was especially good at predicting the weather which is an important aspect of growing and harvesting crops. He was very good to his animals and used work horses until the late 1930’s when he purchased a tractor for field work.

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I plan to do a whole blog on my grandfather's relationship with his animals. It was amazing to me, but probably seemed normal to other farmers. I was fascinated by his tractor, too. It was so very loud--no mufflers on tractors--and open to everything. Often he would invite a grandchild or two to stand by him as he sat on the seat and drove out to the fields. It was exciting, but did not feel safe to me. I know now that it was not at all safe and I would not allow my children to do it, if they had had the opportunity. Still, I survived, didn't I?