Saturday, June 13, 2009

Part - 14b - Back to the Farm








(Me at about 4 with Pigeon Pen,
Water tank and power pole)

(Me and the '55 Pontiac)

RAISIN'

14b. GROWING UP

BACK TO THE FARM

14b. Red Wagon, Singing, Chores

I would build dams in the little stream that ran from the spring, across the road; Had wagon roads for my "Red" wagon, that I would either "semi-ride" while having one knee in the wagon and the other pushing, or hauling wood, dirt, etc.; Graded roads in the back yard with a hoe for a road grader, complete with ditches and bridges for my trucks; Rode "stick" horses that Joe would help me make; and I enjoyed pitching horse shoes.

One thing Mother and I would do after all the others left and Daddy was working out of town was to sing as she played the piano. We'd sing gospel or church songs and I'd whistle when she played "Red Wing" and other songs. I liked it when she would pinch and release her nose to sound like a Hawaiian guitar while she played Hawaiian music.

My "chores" were to get in stove wood (later house wood after Joe left.), feed chickens, water the hogs, and gather eggs. (CB would say that I'd look up to see if it might rain so I wouldn't have to tote water to the hogs!)

Later, as Claire, then Sylvia, then Joe left home, all the chores that remained became mine. I milked one or two cows, fed them, fed Red, the horse (all the mules and hogs were gone by then), and fed the chickens.

The jobs I hated most were hoeing (anything), gathering cucumbers, picking up potatoes and cleaning out rotten Irish potatoes out of the potato house.

The Potato house was about 8 feet wide by, 20 feet long and about 5 feet high. It was made of peeled pine poles and the logs "chinked" with clay.

As I stated above, I played in the band in school. I first began playing trumpet in the 7th grade, later E-flat horn in Millry's band, French horn in the Richmond Academy band in Augusta and the National Future Farmers of America Band in Kansas City, then tuba at Millry, Livingston State Teachers College (now University of West Alabama) and Howard College (now Samford University).






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