Terry and I settled into our new appreciated AC yesterday. It is NICE to have air again. The temps in Naples have been about 10 degrees higher than normal for the past few days and it looks like it will continue to be that way for a while. Yesterday we intended to take in a festival in Tin City which is near downtown Naples but got way laid and did not go. Today, maybe. It is the beginning of Stone Crab season and I don't think I have ever had stone crabs. I think they are popular and a bit expensive so maybe a tiny one for me!
OCTOBER 27TH 1957----62 YEARS AGO
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| picture taken January 27th of 1957 |
I turned over in bed and stared at the ceiling. I had no idea what time it was but I could hear Mom stirring in the kitchen and thought maybe it was time to get up. Blinking my eyes I tried to remember what day it was and yes, it was Sunday and this week we did have church. Then I remembered Mom practicing the piano yesterday. She loved to play the organ in church but most of the time Elden would do that. However today she knew he would not be there and she was excited. It was not a matter of being excited for today it was just that Mom LOVED to play at church and if Elden ever gave it up, it seemed he may never, Mom would feel like she was in heaven. My mind went back to early morning. I knew Mom would be making breakfast before church and being it was Sunday I thought we may be lucky enough to have pancakes with cream and chokecherry syrup.
I pulled on my overalls and headed down stairs carefully avoiding the gun loading equipment that Dad had been using the night before. As I tip toed over the powder scale I thought, "Why does he not have a place for this instead of doing it on the stairs up to our bedrooms. Actually that was a question that never got answered but I suspect I know! Mom turned from the cook stove with her usual MOM smile and said breakfast would be ready as soon as we finished milking the cows. I thought to myself, "is she smiling because she is happy to see me or is she smiling because she gets to play the organ in church"? Regardless I loved to see Mom smile. Dave followed me down the stairs and he too tipped toed over Dad's equipment.
With pails in hand we headed out to the barn. We now had electricity in the barn and that was nice BUT I kind of missed the kerosene lantern light that we used to have. The cows had been in the barn all night and they were ready for their hay which they ate as we milked. As one can guess the minute we opened the barn door the cats appeared, all 12 of them, ready for their squirt of milk! Besty and Lumpy were the last to be milked as they were the easiest and we did not need to use kickers on them. The other cows were OK but at times they would get restless and lift their leg which was dangerous for the milk pail! This morning Dave bested me as his pail was almost full and mine was 3/4. He jokingly said he was the best milker but I shot back with, "you milked the best cows!" As we walked back to the house the sun was appearing over the tree line to the east. It looked like a perfect fall day and I thought, "I know Rollof will be finishing his corn picking today but we would not as Dad NEVER did farm work on Sundays." As I got older I came to realize that although Dad did certain work on the farm most of the time he left the work to Dave and I. That included milking, picking rocks, dragging, plowing, stacking hay and more. The work he would not allow anyone else to do was running the haystacker and seeding in the spring.
I kind of lagged behind Dave as we walked to the house. By the time I had fed our dog Tiny some milk Dave had the cream separator running.
Ours was electric but it kind of looked like this. By the time we finished separating the milk and cream Mom had hot pancakes ready with the chokecherry syrup on the table. I was glad to see that we had some cream in the fridge because I never did like warm cream or milk.
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With the cows milked and breakfast finished we got dressed for church as Mom practiced her songs for church one more time. Whenever she played for church her music seemed to come alive and I suspect it was because her joy came through in her music.
We arrive at church way to early for me but of course Mom needed to practice the songs on the church organ as well. As she did that Dad walked around the cemetery and Dave and I went up to the second floor of church to pretend to pull the huge church bell. We could do that when church was ready to start but not a half hour before! Helen and Joan stayed close to Mom.
Pastor Meiling (sp) arrived and Mom talked to him about the music. My friend Chuckie arrived just before church and I was pleased because just this year Dad had allowed me to sit with my friend instead of sitting with Mom and Dad. Chuckie and I had our game of seeing who could open the hymn book closed to the song BUT really I did not need a book as I knew the songs Mom had chosen would be ones I knew by heart.
Amazing Grace
Crown Him with many Crowns
How Great is our God
The Old Rugged Cross
I liked the songs so much I had hoped we would sing ALL verses of all the songs but for most it was only the first, second and last verse. One would know that as you looked at the wooden plaque on the wall with the songs and verses placed in order.
Mom was in a good mood as we drove home. I knew she was thinking that maybe Eldon would be sick the next week but of course that most likely would not happen! As we pulled into the driveway Mom said dinner would be ready at noon. We did not even have to ask what we would have. It would be fried egg sandwiches with a side of pickles. Our Sunday "go to dinner".
I know what Dad had in mind after dinner. He would want to take a nap as he often did on Sundays. Dave and I would probably ask him to hit us fly balls and chances were he would decline. We would then do it ourselves but it never was as fun as doing it with Dad. We may ride our bikes up to the lake but really the lake was a bit cool for swimming this late in October. If we did not do that I knew what I might do.
As the sun was getting low in the sky I climbed the light pole by the barn door and settled in on the west side of the barn roof. That was my kind of "go to place' when I wanted/needed to think. As I sat watching the late afternoon sun I reflected on baseball, my favorite subject. My Milwaukee Braves had defeated the Yankees in 7 games of the World Series just a couple weeks ago. I was so happy that I had baseball cards of my heroes like Spahn, Burdette, Eddie Matthews and others. For some reason I just did not like the Yankees so it was a happy day when the Braves won.
I reflected on school. Wood Lake was now closed and we were riding the bus each day to Cayuga. I thought I had a new friend in Larry. Even though school was only a few weeks old it seemed like I now had a friend and he was someone who liked school and was good in sports. To this day I consider him my best friend ever and Terry and I have visited him twice in Montana.
It was a good day. Church music, Mom's pancakes, some biking, some baseball and time on the barn roof. As a ten year old I felt my world was GREAT.
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