family

Going to Town

Featured2 Comments

If we stayed on the farm with Aunt Millie and Uncle Jim for more than a day or 2, there was a good chance that one day would be dedicated to going to town, to the market. Time to take the eggs to the market and do a little shopping.

It was an adventure to say the least. Uncle Jim made the ride in exciting, can’t say he was the best driver in the world, but hey, we got there, and we got back, and that is what counts.

While in town, Uncle Jim would find the bench on the town square and sit down for a nice relaxing smoke on his old corn cob pipe. Millie and I would go to the store to sell the eggs, and to pick up essentials before heading back to the farm.

It was interesting to see how the eggs were handled. Until I got to go to the market with them, I had no idea that the eggs had to be checked, to make sure they were “good”, aka no embryo’s forming, and edible. Then they would settle up on a price, and Millie would walk away with the “egg money” tucked away in her purse, now it was time to shop. Can’t say I remember much of what she would have bought, they had almost everything they needed on the farm, but she picked up a few things, and then it was back to the farm. Back into our “work” clothes, and back into the garden, weeding and picking some good fresh veggies. Jim would take care of the animals, and then any other chore that needed to be done, then take his place on the well platform to have another smoke on the ole pipe.

Life back then, and in particular, on the farm, was a lot different than living in town. You had to plan your trips to town, take care of as much as you needed to so you didn’t have to make any unnecessary trips that would take you away from work needing to be done on the farm. A pretty nice lifestyle if you ask me….

While this is not the small town that Jim and Millie shopped and did business in, it is very typical of the small farming towns in the area.

\

Sharing History with the Young Ones

Featured2 Comments

A few years ago, I was mowing down at the farm when a truck rolled to a stop in front of the farm. A gentleman was in the truck, along with his grand or great grandson, I can’t remember for sure. He waved at me, so I stopped to see what he might be looking for. He introduced himself and his offspring, and asked me a few questions about the family aspect of the farm, as well as a little history on the place. He then turned to the child and said “son, this is what a family farm looks like. There aren’t many more left like this, and by the time you grow up, there will be even less of them.

He then introduced himself as somebody who lived across the road, and a little south of the place. He was taking the child around to show him where he grew up. As it turns out, he spent many a day, hanging out with Dad back in the day, as a child. His large family would visit Aunt Millie and Uncle Jim often, and the evening usually involved some pinochle for the adults. The kids played outside and enjoyed the fresh air. That is the way it was done back then.

The conversation turned to “What is your families plan for this place”? I told him that Mom now had the farm, and her goal was to keep the farm in the family, and to keep it as Dad would have. I also told him that as Mom and Dad’s kids, we all had the same mindset, keep the legacy alive, maintain it as close to what Dad would do if he were still here, and hopefully pass it on to future generations. He lit up when he heard that. He told the child in the truck, “This is what it is all about, this is what family farm is, and at least for the foreseeable future, this farm will still be a family farm. There is hope…….”

Dad’s Tractor

Featured2 Comments

Early on, Dad found an old International Model H tractor, much like one that Uncle Jim would have had back in the day. It ran, didn’t look fantastic, but not bad. He drove it all the way from home to the farm. Quite a ride, well over 25 miles. He stuck to the back roads to avoid as much traffic as he could, but most farmers will understand, not everybody in a vehicle was happy with him being on the road. It made for an interesting and nerve racking drive, but he got it done. That was Dad. If it needed to be done, he would do it, period.

The farmer that farmed the place at the time gave him an old sickle bar mower which he used as much as possible (the mower was old, and required a lot of additional attention, plus it tended to get plugged up quite a bit. Again, Dad would do what he had to do to keep mowing. He wanted to keep that farm looking sharp, and he accomplished that despite any roadblocks put up by machines. He had the farmer gene in him, when it breaks, don’t whine about it, fix it and move on. Not that he didn’t get a little bit “tee’d off” at times, but what else can you do, you drive down 25 miles one way to mow, the mower breaks, you fix it so you didn’t make the trip for nothing.

As time moved on, it became apparent that the old tractor and mower were more trouble than they were worth. He broke down and got a riding mower and continued to maintain the park like lawn in the front end. He still kept the tractor running, and he cleaned it up and painted it, not to show condition, but it still, to this day, looks pretty good, dusty maybe, but good.

The old tractor became the center of fun for Dad during family celebrations. All the young kids took their turn riding with grandpa and the look in Dad’s eye’s told a story of complete pride, contentment and happiness, a feeling that he had all the time, but it really showed at the farm.

Uncle Jim and his corn cob pipe

Featured4 Comments

Our Uncle Jim lived life to the fullest. I am not sure that I ever saw him that he wasn’t laughing or had a big smile on his face. He also was very adventurous.

As it turns out, our love of balloons may have been inherited. Except that Jim used to jump out of them. Yep he would travel with a team, and parachute out of (may have been gas ) balloons. if memory serves me, he said they had a trap door in the floor of the basket, and once they got to altitude, he would open the door and make his descent back to terra firma. I loved to hear his stories.

Uncle Jim was also a painter. He worked for a local paint shop, and he painted gold leaf on the ceilings of several old churches in the Springfield area. He had a lot of stories to tell about that too. Again, he enjoyed life, and what ever it was that he had to do, including farming.

One of Jim’s other loves, was his pipe. It was rare to see him without it. Corn cob pipes to be precise. He would smoke them until he burned a hole in it, then go buy him another one. The new ones, he had to smoke them a lot to get them broke in. He didn’t care for the taste of a new pipe. Kentucky Club Tobacco was his choice of tobacco”s, pretty strong stuff from what I remember. Even in his final days, he had to have his pipe, to hell with the Emphysema.

One of a few times Uncle Jim didn’t have his corn cob pipe. Looks like the dog “Star” and my brother Jim were hanging with him . This is in the back yard of the house, I think that the cinder block building/garage is about where the current metal shed is located, and the old outhouse in the background is about where the apple tree used to be.