GROWING UP

My father passed away when I was nine years old and it was just mom and I on our own. We lived out in the country quite a few miles from town and the closest neighbors were scattered on what few farms that were in the area.

Mom had to get a job right away because the social security checks we received were not enough to live on and there wasn't much spare change for me to have in my pockets. The only thing for me to do was to start looking for jobs. Now no one was going to employee a nine year old kid, but some of the farmers didn't mind paying a little bit for someone to do chores around the farm.

I started out helping feed the cows and hauling hay after school each day, as I learned my way around I stared to drive the trucks and tractors around the farm doing these jobs by myself.

When work was slow or the farmer didn't have the extra money to pay for my work I would have mom haul the old push mower to town and I would mow lawns. Now I wasn't able to work everyday, but I did manage to keep some change in my pockets and help out a little bit.

As I grew older I become pretty handy with a rope and I didn't mind spending a few hours horseback checking pastures. I would have loved doing this day in and day out, but you have to take the good with the bad, sometimes I was on the wrong end of post-hole diggers with fencing pliers in my hip pocket.

The work hours were from "can't see to can't see" and it was scorching hot in the Summer and freezing cold in the Winter. But to watch the grass turn green with newborn calves playing in the fields you knew Spring was on its way. And with a big harvest moon overhead you see the frost form on the ground and your breath has a hint of vapor, the last bale of hay in the feed trough ends a long day. I have to say those early jobs were the best.