I remember my parents in one specific way. It is always good to learn of other things about them which I never would have known without those who tell tales!
I very rarely heard my parents say bad words. Oh sure, once in a while Dad would be working on some stubborn project and the air would become a bit blue, but as I said that time was rare.
My Dad and my Grandpa were the best of friends. That is when I first began to know them as a child growing up. I never heard them speak up to one another in a loud tone or in any sort of disrespectful way. They were the best of Friends at that time.
I have since heard a few stories that tell me this was not always true. I will begin to write them down here. I do wish I had asked Mom more about them when she would have been able to relate them to me. It is one thing I will always regret about the past. I will always wish I had asked more about things, or been more interested in HER slant on Life, instead of being so afraid she was going to Judge me for the way I wanted to live mine.
I remember things about living in Missouri. I remember why we moved there
when I was still in my Mommy's tummy. A better Life, land of their own.
No more renting. No more dealing with someone else telling them what to
do with their crops.
That had to be Brave, Scarey, and Wonderful all at the same time. Leaving what they knew, facing the unknown. I tried it for a couple of weeks...I have to admit, I was not as ready for Adventure as I thought I was. I never will be. I am the type who relishes safety. (This is another story I will write later)
Oh, I lamented for some time about "what ifs". I lived in the past.
I tried to blame everyone else for me...I know now that that is done.
I am moving on. I am finding out more about others in my Family whom
I have always loved. There is still time. I must keep digging. I want
to know more.
What that must have been like to buy a farm, cows, pigs, and etc. I will have to ask my Dad how much money they invested. I am sure it was not very much. I remember pictures of my Grandparents back then.
My Grandma Merril was about 90 lbs soaking wet and tipped the scales
at a whopping 132 at one time. She went on a diet as she felt so fat and frumpy at that weight. She never gained an ounce back either. After working hard most of their lives, she and Grandpa softened up as they got older and did not find themselves needing to work as hard at manual labor as they did when they lived
in Iowa and when they first moved to Missouri to farm.
I can remember their hands were always calloused and worn looking. Grandma would say that she was glad to wash the dishes because doing so helped her hands stay softer. I think of the way they did things back then. It was much more manual labor than now days. They earned every thing they had...or bought. Sometimes laboring for years before they would be able to afford things important to them.
Things people nowadays take for granted. Things people now will go into debt to have. Things to "keep up" with the other people they know.
I remember having to wash clothes in a wringer washing machine. Being careful not to lose fingers was my biggest goal. That and getting all the different loads washed before I would have to change the water and begin again. No fresh water for each load. Jeans and other work clothes were the last in because they were
the dirtiest.
The same was true of bathing. We did not bathe every day. Once or twice a week was a Heavenly thing! Once a week was required.
No Tv. No running into town for any little thing. One trip a week was all we got, sometimes 2 weeks would go by before we would be able to journey in. It depended upon the time of the year.
Grandma and my Mom gardened and canned and they/we had food for the
entire winter because it had to stretch. If we didn't, we had to buy canned, and canned goods cost about 10 cents per can...which was a lot back then.
Anyway, I am drifting away from my point. I was telling about my
Dad and things I heard Sometimes.
I remember one time hearing him Swear a Blue Streak because he was losing a calf that was being born too soon and he swore and cried until he had to stop trying to make that calf breathe.
It was one of the few times I saw him lose total control. He wanted that calf to live so much, he just worked and worked and didn't give up until he could no longer try. He sent me to the house as soon as he knew that the calf was not going to make it. He had wanted to share the wonderment of Birth with us kids and I know it made him feel so bad to have it turn out so wrong. "Sometimes things just go wrong" I remember him telling me later on and how he was so sorry for saying all those things he did not mean and that he hoped I would forgive him for saying them.
Of course I did.
I was going in another direction, but since I have wandered so far off topic, I will keep going and change the name of this later.
My point was to tell about things my Grandparents told about my Dad and his family. I realize now that I don't have all that much history in this respect, and will have to see if I can get some things from Dad or his Brother Don.
Waiting too long is not a good thing, memories like that die
with the older generations.
I will continue this story later on, I have run down for now.
Thanks for reading!
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