Thoughts of Summers Past

Howdy, Friends,

Just sittin' here thinkin' about how summers used to be on the farm here in the most outer reaches of New Market Community.

It is raining this evening, and it reminded me of the days that the corn was close to being "laid by", which means that we didn't have much else to do to it. Oh, there was some hoeing to do to it, and then there was the tobacco that had to be "wormed", which consisted of pulling the tobacco worms off, and either stepping on them or throwing them on the hard ground and splatting them.

My brother, John, three years younger than I am, would put them on his shirt, where they would stay, fastening themselves on, and then after collecting quite a few, he would then proceed to splat them on the ground.

Well, when it was raining during the day, I would hide away in the side room that was on the front of the house, and lie on the army cot that we had in there, and read. Our roof was made of tin, and oh, the sound of the rain on it was so wonderful!

Reading has always been one of my favorite activities, from the time I was in the second grade through tomorrow and tomorrow.

Near the end of summer, before school started, was tobacco cutting time. Wooden sticks were gathered for the cutting, and spaced out in the tobacco patch for the "spearing" of the stalks onto the sticks, as each stalk was cut. When we would come to the stick, the person cutting the stalks would put the stick straight up into the ground and then place a metal point on the top of the stick. The stalk would then be cut near the ground and it would be "speared" onto the stick and brought close to the ground. The next stalk would be cut and speared onto the stick, and brought close to the one just placed on it. And so on, until the stick was full, then on to the next stick.

Of course, I never got to help in the cutting of the tobacco, because I was a girl and too small. But that is okay, it was hot work anyway, and I never cared too much about working out in the hot sun. Ha.

John and I had a lot of fun on the farm as well as working. It was a new and different life for us, but we adapted pretty quickly. You know, kids can always find fun stuff to do. One thing we found was an old telephone (wall type) that was probably from the 1920's, and of course, we proceeded to take that apart to see what it was like inside.

And then, we found an old coffee mill, and of course, we had to take it apart too.

There was a lot to explore on the farm, because it had been around for so long. We also gained a dog soon after we moved out here. Our Uncle John (one of Dad's brothers) thought John Lee needed a dog, so he sent one out. We named him Pedro, and nicknamed him Pete. Pete was a German Shepherd, and was supposed to be a guard dog, and he would bark if anyone came into the yard that he didn't know. However, if that person spoke his name, he would stop barking and wag his tail. Some guard dog, hey?

Well, that is about it for today. My memories of life on the farm come back to me more easily, now that I am once again living on land that was once ours. More later.

May each of you have a good night's rest and may you be aware of God's blessings.

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for the night.