This is my story page. I will start it out and hope many of you who read this story will
feel free to contribute your stories about growing up on the farm or even in town. I have
surfed the web and I have not been able to find stories like these. I think it would be fun
to hear from others on what life was like when you were growing up. This can be mothers,
grandmothers, wives, stories about your children or even humorous things that have
happened in your life. I would like to keep this page light and enjoyable. I will have a
page for Poems and Inspirational stories that will inspire us all.
"GROWING UP ON THE FARM"
I was raised on an 80 acre farm. My grandmother and grandfather raised me. Those were
the days! I remember getting up at 5:00AM in the morning and go to the pasture to bring
the cows in for milking. I remember heating and cooking with wood. It was so cold in
the morning that you had to get dressed as soon as your feet hit the floor. I would get
dressed and go out in diningroom and draw a chair as close to the old pot bellied stove
as I could to get warm. Sometimes I would go in to the kitchen and slip in the space beside
the wood cook stove and sit down on the floor there. It was nice and toasty warm beside
that old stove. For many winters that became my favorite reading place. There were other
jobs on the farm that were not quite so easy. I helped saw wood in the fall for the winter.
I helped shuck corn in the corn field. Now that was one job you got out of if you could,
but I didn't get that lucky. We were a team of two and my grandmother and I would go out
in that corn field and shuck corn by hand and pile it in piles. It was a mighty big field.
Then the tractor and wagon was brought in and the corn in piles had to be picked by hand
and thrown in the wagon and then taken back to the corn crib and shoveled into the
corncrib. This fed the hogs and ten head of cattle that we owned. Then there was
haying to do. I remember when I said, my grandfather and his son had hired help to
do the haying. My grandfather picked the hay up with a pitch-fork and threw it on
the wagon. Then later on the hay was bailed with twine and put in the barn. In
those days, when you needed help your neighbors volunteered their time and neighbor
helped neighbor. We raised chickens and turkeys.
The women, my grandmother and my two Aunts would cook all day long just to feed those working
men. Sunday would come and that was always family day or we had company. There was always a
big Sunday dinner. Then you ate breakfast, dinner and super. My grandmother didn't go to
Church as I remember, but she did let me go. Then in the Spring and Summer we planted a huge
garden. We had an acre of land that was nothing but garden vegetables. Oh how I hated to
have to help weed that garden, but I never argued with my grandmother about what my job was. I
did it with no questions asked. In late Summer there was sweet corn, greenbeans, sweetpeas,
tomatoes, green onions, radishes, spinage or greens as grandma liked to call them. We had tons
of potatoes. The only fruits grandma planted in her garden were ground cherries and strawberries.
All the canning that had to be done and put away in the cellar for the winter. In the Summber
that wood cook stove got really hot and sweat we did. We had apple trees, pears, peaches,
cherries, black berries and raspberries. Down in the pasture we had gooseberries and walnuts.
God graced us with all the food we ever needed every year of our life. My grandmother liked
flowers and she had a flower bed in front of the kitchen windows. Her favorite flowers were
Dafidil's, Tulips, peony's and roses. We had a grape arbor over our front porch and that made
some good grape jelly. I left home when I was nineteen years old and my grandmother lived to
be seventy-one years old. She did a great job with us kids. She had one son and three daughters
that she raised and then she raised my cousin, brother and myself. I love her and miss her.
I believe she has made me the person, I am today. Now the farm is run down and doesn't look
like I remember it. Maybe someday, someone will love it enough to clean it up and rebuild it
again. It is sad to see good farms die. My grandmother ran the farm and made her living off
the land, just the way farmers do today.
Now come on ladies old and yourng alike. Write to me with your stories and share the memories.
If you would like me to put your story on my website, E-Mail your story and I will be glad to
put it up so we as women can share the good life with our friends and family's. Thank You for
visiting my WebSite and I hope you enjoyed your stay.
