Drama on the Farm

While most of the time I spent on the farm was pleasant and uneventful, there are a few incidents which stand out in my mind. One was when I was about fourteen and we were driving out from Albert Lea on our way for Easter vacation. Easter was not particularly early that year, but we were surprised by a big snowstorm, almost a blizzard. This was not a problem until we left the main highways just south of town. The snowplows did not bother with the farm roads until everything else was clear, especially when the schoolbuses were not running. We were driving a Pontiac Tempest, sort of like a Cavalier, not the best car for such conditions. It was all right until we turned the last corner and headed south. The road was drifted so full of snow that the car became stuck and we had to get our suitcases out of the trunk and hike through snow up over our knees--or waist for Missy! The car was about a mile from the driveway to the farm, but Grampa was looking for us with the tractor, which was set much higher than a car. Only two of us could ride with him, so he had to make three trips, but we all got there finally. We were able to retrieve the car the next day. One year when I was maybe seven I spent most of the summer on the farm and there was one sow (adult female hog) who was unusually gentle. Many hogs are downright dangerous, but she was easygoing and we could even ride her. I don't remember what we called her, but she had a name and everything. I was sorry to leave her when I went home in the fall. We went back there for Christmas, arriving late in the evening. We went straight to bed, but I got up early in the morning. Over breakfast we got all the news of the farm. Children did not speak much at the table, but during a break in the grownups' talk I asked Grampa how that hog was. He looked at his plate and said that he thought she was really good--as sausage! I did not eat any more of it on that trip! Sometimes when we were there in the summer it was really hot, even at night. I would lie on the bed and look out the east window, sort of diagonally to the north, at the blinking radio towers off between the farm and the town. There was some light from the town off that way, too, though the town was not all that big. One summer night we had a big storm and were enjoying the thunder and lightning from our beds when all of a sudden there was a huge crash just outside the south window! There were two big elm trees in the yard on that side of the house and one of them had been struck by lightning. It did not catch fire, fortunately, and we settled back to sleep after a while. There were usually pancakes for breakfast and every morning Gramma would take whatever scraps there might be (I think she made extra pancakes on purpose.) and tear them into a metal pan. Then she would step outside the back door, calling, "He-ere, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty!" Then cats would appear as if by magic from under the woodshed, out of the woods, squeezing through small gaps in barn and shed doors, etc. and running pell-mell toward her. They shared amicably the contents of the pan, which might include eggs, bacon, sausage, oatmeal, etc. as well as the constant pancakes. Any dogs that were about also understood that that call meant food, but they were made to wait until the cats had had their fill. If there was anything left, the dogs could have it, but they did receive dog food in the evenings and the cats were not fed otherwise to keep them hungrier for mousing. That closed-off room the front door led into was an attractive place when it wasn't too hot or too cold. The piano was terribly out of tune, but it was fun to read books my mother had read when she was little and play with her toys. There was one item which had been her father's as a boy! It was a viewer with glass plates about one by six inches with pictures of places in Europe like the Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, Big Ben, etc. I wonder what happened to it. It would be very valuable by now, if it still exists. There were three or four Bobbsey Twins books. These were about a family with two pairs of twins, a boy and a girl in each. It made me really wish for a twin brother, but I never got one. It was on the farm that I learned the importance of leaving a gate the way you found it. One day I was out on the west side of the barn with Uncle Bob. We finished whatever we were doing and headed back up to the house. (It was probably time for dinner.) The gate just west of the barn was a big long one, wide enough for two semis to pass, I think, and it was hard for a little girl to manage. Knowing that my uncle was right behind me and the cattle were on the other side of the field, I left it open and continued uphill toward the house across the circular drive. Then came a bellow which I recognized as my name! I ran back to the gate where my uncle proceeded to berate me for leaving the gate open. He had paused to fix some little thing and looked up to see me halfway to the house and the gate standing wide open. No livestock were near, but that was not the point! You never leave a gate open that you found closed! Never! City kids were useless, spoiled, etc. They were full of book-learning and had no sense! I don't remember just what else he said, but it stung. And I have not left a gate open since. That corner of the barnyard was a low spot where water collected when it rained. There would be a puddle there for days after it dried up everywhere else. So that was where the little daisy flowers grew. They were just weeds, but I liked them. I have since learned that they were chamomile flowers. Usually we would have Christmas at home and go to visit the relatives just afterwards. But one year we all were at the farm for Christmas. That made for a full house! There were eight adults and fourteen children of all ages. Most of the others slept at their own homes, but everyone was there for dinner. Gramma roasted a goose and a turkey, basing the turkey with the goose drippings. It was scrumptious!