May 26, 2013
One day I came running into the house and my mother asked me what was wrong. She said that my face was as white as a sheet. I had seen a snake in our yard southwest of the garage. As I recall it was the first one I had seen in our yard.
Mr. Fruth had killed a blue racer snake while working in the field. He brought it up and hung it over the barnyard fence.
It was quite amazing that we did not see more snakes. Living on a farm with fields, creeks, high weeds, lots of bushes, tall grass, a pond. We used to walk back to the Raisin River through waist tall weeds and did not see snakes. Of course, I don't think that I ever looked for them. I would not want to walk back there now. After I had children, the neighbor, Raymond Potts was driving by our house, saw a rattler, went off the road to run over it, came to the house to show us. He wanted us to know what a rattle snake looked like. It had been crossing the road from the swamp. We had bushes around a tree by the road. Needless to say, I was reluctant to have my children play outside after that.
The neighbor girls, Ardith and Barbara Lowe, my best friends. used to come down and we would play house with my dolls. We would get the dolls, clothes, and doll beds, etc. and take them out in the front yard to play with them. They would have to go home and guess who had to take care of everything. Right, I did.
These same sisters, had ponies that they would ride to our house. I was riding up through our front yard on one of them one day and it was trotting along and suddenly stopped, put it's head down and began to eat grass. That was when the saddle flew over it's head and I flew off as well.
Washing the cream separator, as described in another area, was another of my not so fond memories.
I used to gather eggs. It wasn't a bad job, until you found a sitting hen that didn't want to give up her eggs. She would let you know that by pecking you when you reached for the eggs.
A job that my brothers and I had each spring was cutting asparagus. We had 2 fields of it east of our house. That was our after school and Saturday job. We wore a canvas apron with a pocket in the front to put the asparagus in after cutting it. Asparagus had this offensive odor when cutting that doesn't get better after it has been on the apron for some time. None of us like to eat asparagus for some reason. My mother used to fix creamed asparagus on toast that I could eat. I don't believe that my brothers ever did like it.
We had some baby rabbits that were so cute. My brothers made a short fence and brought them up to the side yard, so we could play with them. That was a big mistake due to our cats. No more baby bunnies.
There were times that I helped mama when she killed chickens. She would dress the chickens, cook them for us, or sell them to some of her customers. I would hold the chickens on this stump with my head turned away, so I wouldn't see them, while mama chopped their head off with the ax.
When I was 12, I had the mumps. My brothers got the mumps from me. They were very sick. George had a fever of 105 degrees and did not want anyone else, but mama in his room. They did not appreciate their little sister at that time.