My Early Childhood the Formative Years

    This is just a glimpse into my early childhood. The formative years. A time of family fun. When I was born, we lived on my dad's family dairy farm. I think I was about 2 years old when we moved and then my dad became a truck driver. But because the farm remained in my dad's family, we would often go back to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins. My dad came from a family of 6 brothers and sisters. During our visits I had many fond and warm memories of our times spent there during summer. One of my very first memories was getting out of my family's car and coming face to face...literally...with a St. Bernard dog! I may have been about 6 years old. Because my dad was standing nearby that is the only reason I did not jump back into the car! That dog seemed to loom over me! Although he was a good dog showing absolutely no signs of aggression, I was afraid and apprehensive around him. I remember he barked once, and I jumped!  Actually, I avoided him every chance I could. I would hesitate to go to the barns to avoid that dog and chose much of the time to remain in the farmhouse with my aunt and mom where I felt protected. Eventually I became braver and finally pet him mainly because I wanted to go outside and play with the barn cats. This step stirred my curiosity taking me to the barns where my dad, uncle, cousins and siblings spent their time. I remember going first to the milk house where my dad and uncle were. This is where I first saw the Holstein cows during milking. The process was interesting as I watched the cows being herded on to the platform where each one took its turn being milked. Once in a while one would bellow out making me laugh. I was amazed. Then I went to the room where the large vats of milk were processed for canning. I remember going to the barn and seeing the barn filled with hay and straw. This is where the older kids spent their time. They made tunnels through the hay bales, hid and then jumped out at each other. They were funny to watch. I was mostly an observer taking in all the wonderful sights and sounds of the farm. During winter at Christmas time, we would go back to the farm to celebrate the holiday. This was one of my favorite times. I played board games with my cousins while hearing laughter coming from our parents as they sat around the large table in the big country kitchen. Once in a while we would go snow sledding and ice skating. These times brought joy to my life. 

   I also remember spending a lot of time with my mom's family. My mom came from a large family too. She had 11 siblings. We also had our yearly get togethers during summer and Christmas with many visits in between. I remember spending time at the local auction and sale barns beside my mom's family home. The auction barn was where livestock were brought for live auction and sales of farm equipment would be held here also. We would be allowed to run with freedom through the barns to look at all the cows, pigs and sheep. During the summer months we spent our time at the yearly machinery and relief sales. My mom would volunteer in the food wagon while I would run around barefoot with my younger brother and sister. The relief sale is where many beautiful hand-stitched quilts were sold at live auction. My mom would often have a quilt set up in our living room and taught me to stitch alongside her. Baking day was Saturday and she taught me how to make home-made cinnamon rolls, pie and elephant ears. Mom had beautiful and large flower gardens for cutting and also for pure pleasure as we spent time outside. My favorite was the long row of lilac trees that lined our property. There was a particular grouping of lilac trees that grew in such a way that there was space in the center. My younger sister and I played in this spot. We pretended it was our home. There was a branch that grew laterally, and this provided seating for us. One day my sister decided to run back to the house to get our baby dolls and child-size dishes, but I chose to continue pretending instead. I used the lilac leaves as dishware and the twigs as silverware. The floor of our home was made of a smooth flat mud surface that was cool to our hot summer feet. We watched through the windows of our home as mom worked the garden. I remember my grandma stopping in on occasion and she would always walk through our yard admiring the flower gardens, vegetable gardens and grape arbor. My grandma was quite the gardener too. She loved roses! 

   One summer day while my sister and I were sitting on the porch swing in the front of the house my mom came out of the house with a big bowl of garden peas still in the shell. She wanted to prepare them for supper that evening and asked that we shell them. Now, understanding that peas were one of my favorite vegetables this was a mistake! My sister and I took the bowl and started to shell the peas. Not being able to resist we plopped one in our mouths. They were so good... and sweet! We decided then that we must try some more so we plopped a few more in our mouths. And then a few more. Plop, plop, plop. Finally, we looked at the peas in the bowl and decided we had eaten too many and that it made sense to finish eating them instead of having them for supper because there were not enough left to serve everyone at supper. So, we gobbled them up until they were gone! We laughed at ourselves but when mom returned to get the peas and found out she was not very pleased! To this day I still love peas and will always remember this day.