Dottie and Lucy

Lucy Cline   September, 2014

 

I feel blessed to have been raised on a farm located between Slater and Kelley.  Since our home was located on the north side of the east/west road, we went to school at Kelley.  We went to Slater to church and to do our shopping, banking, and selling our eggs and cream which I helped transport soon as I received my drivers permit. 

 

I was the youngest of nine siblings in our family.  I have many memories of the hard work and hlong hours involved in farming without modern equipment using horses to do the planint and harvesting of crops.  I remember helping with chores, feeding chickens, gathering eggs, milking cows, and helping husk corn. 

 

An exciting time on the farm was during threshing.   Men with the threshing machine moved from farm to farm and the hired hands helped with the work.  Of course these men were hungry by noon and needed a full meal.  Before they came to the house to eat though, they needed to wash away the dust and dirt.  We had a wash pan with water from the well on a stand by the big tree.  There was a mirror on the tree so they could check their efforts.  The mirror was held by a wire hooked into the tree. Just think what stories that old tree could tell.

 

Our mom set an awesome example of managing our household from keeping us fed, always in clean clothes washed in a wringer washing machine and dried on clothes lines in the basement or outdoors weather permitting.  She sewed most of our clothes and never complained.

 

I remember how fast she could put a big meal together when our relatives or friends stopped in at meal time.  She could kill a chicken, scold off the feathers, have it cleand, cut up and in the skillet to cook faster than anyone I know.  If the guests couldn't wait that long, she would prepare a platter of poached eggs with her baked bread and rolls and open a jar of her canned cherry sauce for dessert.  Everyone was happy.

 

We had a large orchard and garden east of our house with a row of cherry trees at the side of our large front lawn.  We kids earned our money for our Fourth of July spending by picking cherries in the spring to be canned.  We got 5 cents for ½ gallon bucket and 10 cents for a 1 gallon bucket.  I remember our Grandmas Lundy, who was staying with us, sat for hours pitting cherries.  She lived several months at a time through the year with each of her children.  I learned to sew for myself with material from her worn out long dresses.  Such precious memories.