The sky was
a faint orange as the sun set in the west. And as I watched the clouds roll by, I recalled the days of my youth. Admittedly, I do not recall very much of this preschool life. I had, for a while, two brothers to play with, and then along came a third one. I guess we did most of those things that other small boys do. We got into just as much mischief as most. We were often made to go stand in the corner until we said we were sorry (spankings were out). I do remember that I would swipe a pickle from the pickle-jar and go to the stairs, and sitting on the bottom step enjoy it to the full. Most times, I enjoyed being alone, planning all sorts of great things to do when I grew up.I remember, we had a cousin, the only child of Pa's brother, very much a lady sort of girl. She was fun to play with. Then there were several other young girls, who fascinated my childish mind. One of the highlights, however, was a Birthday Party arranged for my fifth birthday. Several neighbour children, including our cousin Velda, were there. I guess we did the usual things -- played tag, hide-and-seek, and just ran around. The highlight was the Mama-made cake and Ice Cream. Well, those boys and girls, represented our circle of playmates at that time. Usually, however, we played together by ourselves. We all lived a simple life. Simple things amused and delighted us. Everyday things were our playthings. One little game we often played was Horse and Driver. One of us would play horse while another would be the driver. The horse may be hitched to our play wagon, with the other, the driver, riding with reins in hand. This way we learned, at an early age, something about horses and what made them go.We did not need a sandbox, as such, to play in. The whole farm, especially the gravel in the laneway, and the good earth under the swing, hung from a limb of an old apple tree on our lawn, was our sand box. One of the most exciting things was the cable car we had travelling from a high-up limb on an apple tree to a point low down on a pear tree. This consisted of a long rope borrowed from the barn, a wooden rope pulley, another short piece of rope and the swing-board. The motive power was furnished by any available adult, male or female. Using a long pole, this person would push us up to the top of the apple tree and then, releasing the pole, we would go -- w h e e -- all the way to the pear tree.Then there were Nature's Building Blocks. I refer to the common Burdock bur, still in the growing stage. We would use these to build all sorts of things, much like Leggo. A favourite toy to build, using lots of imagination and sticky burs, was an automobile. The headlights would be made from the fully-opened bur showing the red flower. Then there were plenty of Milkweed plants in the Pig Yard. These plants yielded seed pods that made very interesting creatures, from dolls to the man driving the car. Yes, we had our own version of "cops and robbers". We used pea-shooters made from elderberry cane, which happens to be hollow. Using a pocket knife and a steel corset spring for a trigger, as well as the propellant, we fashioned a harmless little device that would shoot a small pea quite some distance. Of course, we were cautioned not to point it at anyone.When our little sister came along and was old enough, we allowed her to join in on our play. She soon became quite a beautiful, blond, auburn, curly-haired little sister. She learned most all of the farm chores, as well as the household tricks from her Ma.Ours being what we called a Mixed Farm, among other things we kept Free-Range chickens. This meant the chickens would be penned up all winter and left to run free, all over the place, from Spring until Fall. Hens, being independent creatures, preferred to choose their own nesting places, disregarding the fancy orange-crate nests we provided for them. My little sister and I would enjoy hunting the eggs. The nests could be anywhere within imagination. We not only had first to look in these nests we provided for them in the hen-house, then around the strawstack, in the hay mow, in the horse mangers -- well, all sorts of places. Sometimes we would miss one or two nests. When we did eventually find this hidden nest, some of the eggs had gotten stale or rotten. These, of course, would be a total loss. It was rather important to locate these stray nests because every egg meant several cents. Cents added into dollars. Eggs were part of our cash crop, as well as part of our menu for breakfasts.Alt
hough most youngsters have lots of imagination, I thought that I had more than anyone else. I loved machinery and dreamed one day of being a great inventor. My favourite place to be was in the work shop. This is where you would find me. The sky turned darker as I brought to mind further memories...The next phase in my life began the Easter following my birthday party, just before I was six years old. To be precise, the year was 1915. Yes, I was allowed to go to school. The three of us tow-haired little boys started off hand in hand, I in the middle. We did not have far to go. The school was located at the corner of our pasture field. We just had to skip through the fields, wade through or jump over a little stream, crawl through an old wire fence, cross the Cutler Sideroad and there we were, at school. Of course, sometimes the stream would be too wide, following a heavy summer shower or Spring freshet. At such times, we were required to find our way around by the road.Our school was a white wooden frame building, complete with a Belfry and the anteroom. At the front, on the right hand side, stood the proverbial flagpole, flying the Union Jack. Beside the flagpole was a dug well serviced by an old wooden Pump. The playground equipment consisted of a swing and a double teeter, both made by some members of the school section. Placed discreetly behind the building were the two red outhouses, clearly labeled "Boys" and "Girls". The school grounds was enclosed by a board fence and a row of trees.Starting school this time of year did give me a chance to get acquainted with the other boys and girls and to feel what it is like, going to school. After about a month and a half, Summer vacation would start and we would all be free to enjoy a farm vacation.Durin
g our "farm Vacation", we learned to work as well as to play. There were many things that we could work at and call play. Going to pasture in the early evening to fetch the cattle was one of those play jobs. I would usually be accompanied by our dog, Friskie. Friskie was considered to be a good cattle dog, in as much as he enjoyed chasing both cows and horses. As a matter of fact, he would chase anything that would run. I enjoyed the freedom of my bare feet, and would sometimes find wild strawberries on the way to divert my attention. There was a little creek meandering across our meadow where the cows would stop to grab a drink and I would wade into for fun.Another fun thing for me, when I felt like it, was when it was announced in a flurry of excitement, "Oh my, the cows are in the corn." This was, as I say, fun for me to run and drive them out. However, this meant that some fence needed fixing. This was another job for someone to do. This was not fun for Mama, or Papa, who had the responsibility of fixing the broken fence. This did happen quite frequently, because none of our fences were very good.Another fun thing, then, was mowing the lawn grass with a push-type lawnmower. After we had finished mowing, we had to rake the green cuttings into a pile. These green cuttings made an excellent smudge fire to repel the mosquitoes on some summer evening when we sat out of doors. We often sat out of doors in the summer. It was always so hot indoors.I enjoyed these summer evenings when I could just sit and listen to the evening creatures talking to each other. These were some of the times when I received some of those great ideas about things I would do later on. These were the times when we, as a family, would discuss the events of the day and plan for the morrow -- as much as we could. Then we would go to bed, more or less refreshed.My vacation also consisted of those many farm chores, like hoeing the corn or the beans; also like cleaning out the ever-dirty stables and putting down new straw. Vacation took in "Haying", "Harvesting", and all those jobs in the hot sun. I will tell about these events in another chapter. Hellraiser is a
