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This Brownie snapshot was made of a birthday party I
had when I turned five. |
The Days Of My Youth (page 1)
As I recalled earlier in this series of Memories, "I got off on a crawling start". This may be true, but for some reason, not too long after, I got stalled. They said it was "nip and tuck" if I would get going again. But, as you see, I fooled them all. I knew, at that early age, that I had a destiny to fulfil.
Well, with mega-doses of T.L.C. -- Tender Loving Care -- I did get going again. I somehow had the feeling that I had better hurry and make up for lost time. I had a lot of thoughts to express and things to do in fact, I had more to say than I could express in English words. This is when I developed an impediment of speech. This handicap accentuated my inherited shyness and made me very hesitant in trying to express myself verbally, especially in public And in the excitement of debate or argument. The result was, I felt left out of things. So, even then, I started being a loner.
I do not recall very much of this preschool life. I had, for a while, two brothers to play with, and then along came a third one. I guess we did most of those things that other small boys do. We got into just as much mischief as most. We were often made to go stand in the corner until we said we were sorry (spankings were out). I do remember that I would swipe a pickle from the pickle-jar and go to the stairs, and sitting on the bottom step enjoy it to the full. Most times, I enjoyed being alone, planning all sorts of great things to do when I grew up.
I remember, we had a cousin, the only child of Pa's brother, very much a lady sort of girl. She was fun to play with. Then there were several other young girls, who fascinated my childish mind. One of the highlights, however, was a Birthday Party arranged for my fifth birthday. Several neighbour children, including our cousin Velda, were there. I guess we did the usual things -- played tag, hide-and-seek, and just ran around. The highlight was the Mama-made cake and Ice Cream. I am showing a copy of a picture that Pa took of all of us, just to prove that I was given this party, and I was there.
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This Brownie snapshot was made of a birthday party I
had when I turned five. |
Well, those boys and girls, shown in this picture, represented our circle of playmates at that time. Usually, however, we played together by ourselves. We all lived a simple life. Simple things amused and delighted us. Everyday things were our playthings. One little game we often played was Horse and Driver. One of us would play horse while another would be the driver. The horse may be hitched to our play wagon, with the other, the driver, riding with reins in hand. This way we learned, at an early age, something about horses and what made them go.
| We often played Horse. This time, I was the driver, Earl and Bob were the team of horses giving me a ride.
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We did not need a sandbox, as such, to play in. The whole farm, especially the gravel in the laneway, and the good earth under the swing, hung from a limb of an old apple tree on our lawn, was our sand box. One of the most exciting things was the cable car we had travelling from a high-up limb on an apple tree to a point low down on a pear tree. This consisted of a long rope borrowed from the barn, a wooden rope pulley, another short piece of rope and the swing-board. The motive power was furnished by any available adult, male or female. Using a long pole, this person would push us up to the top of the apple tree and then, releasing the pole, we would go -- w h e e -- all the way to the pear tree.
Then there were Nature's Building Blocks. I refer to the common Burdock bur, still in the growing stage. We would use these to build all sorts of things, much like Leggo. A favourite toy to build, using lots of imagination and sticky burs, was an automobile. The headlights would be made from the fully-opened bur showing the red flower. Then there were plenty of Milkweed plants in the Pig Yard. These plants yielded seed pods that made very interesting creatures, from dolls to the man driving the car.
Yes, we had our own version of "cops and robbers". We used pea-shooters made from elderberry cane, which happens to be hollow. Using a pocket knife and a steel corset spring for a trigger, as well as the propellant, we fashioned a harmless little device that would shoot a small pea quite some distance. Of course, we were cautioned not to point it at anyone.
When our little sister came along and was old enough, we allowed her to join in on our play. She soon became quite a beautiful, blond, auburn, curly-haired little sister. She learned most all of the farm chores, as well as the household tricks from her Ma.
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The old rain barrel was lots of fun, especially when there was water
in it, just after a rain.
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Ours being what we called a Mixed Farm, among other things we kept Free-Range chickens. This meant the chickens would be penned up all winter and left to run free, all over the place, from Spring until Fall. Hens, being independent creatures, preferred to choose their own nesting places, disregarding the fancy orange-crate nests we provided for them. My little sister and I would enjoy hunting the eggs. The nests could be anywhere within imagination. We not only had first to look in these nests we provided for them in the hen-house, then around the strawstack, in the hay mow, in the horse mangers -- well, all sorts of places. Sometimes we would miss one or two nests. When we did eventually find this hidden nest, some of the eggs had gotten stale or rotten. These, of course, would be a total loss. It was rather important to locate these stray nests because every egg meant several cents. Cents added into dollars. Eggs were part of our cash crop, as well as part of our menu for breakfasts.
Although most youngsters have lots of imagination, I thought that I had more than anyone else. I loved machinery and dreamed one day of being a great inventor. My favourite place to be was in the work shop. This is where you would find me.
