Five

One Fall I dug a hole in the ground deep enough so it was below the frost line and buried a bushel of apples; set the basket in and put a lot of straw around and over it.  That was in October.  I was wondering how long this would keep.  I dug them up the last week of February.  There was only one rotten apple.  It happed to have a bump on it when I buried it.  The rest was just like when I put them in.  Father said they would of lasted till Spring.

Once Father came home with one of the first washing machines.  It had a wheel on the side with a handle to turn by hand.  Mother would always start than she’d call me.  I sure used to get tired turning that thing.  I think that’s why she always got me on it.  Then in the Summer I always had to turn the grindstone for Father to sharpen the cutter bar for the mowing machine to cut hay, and the axe too.

A couple of years Father smoked some meat.  I had to go looking for dry Hickory wood in the woods.  Sometimes I’d come back with tow or three different kinds of wood until I knowed which was Hickory.  Mother said Hickory smoke made the meat taste best.  Some farmers used corncobs but we didn’t shell any corn so we had no corncobs.  I used to find a lot of Hickory nuts and had about a half bushel for cracking during winter.  There was two or three Walnut trees.  I had a few of them too.  Then I found a few Hazel nuts along the roads on the way to school.  I used to help pick a lot of Blackberries and a few Raspberries.

One I was left at home alone most of the day.  The old cat we had was an outdoor cat and lived in the barn but I got him in the house to eat.  I found out he was scared to be inside so I helped things along by getting after him with the broom.  He ran up the stairs and under the bed.  I poked him out with the broom.  He’d go under the chair, the dresser, up on the dresser, downstairs, upstairs.  I got him so scared he jumped up on the window against the glass.  Once he jumped up on the curtains and climbed clear to the top of the window.  He tore one curtain down.  He got so I didn’t dare to get near him.  He was growling and blowing at me.  I opened the door and he sure got out of there in a hurry but I sure got heck when Mother got home. 

One day the next summer Father got a pint of whiskey.  He had to mix some with other medicine for something that was wrong with one of the cows.  He told me not to touch it or it would make me sick.  I knew that people drank it so I tasted it one day when I was alone.  I took two or three tastes as I liked it but I got a little dizzy so I stopped, but I started thinking about the old rooster and wondered how he would act.  So I run him down and held his mouth open and I poured about four tablespoons into him and let him go. 

In a couple of minutes he was staggering all over the place and flapping his winds and falling down.  So I done it to fiver or six of the chickens.  Some just sat down and others tried to run.  They’d run into everything.  It lasted about five minutes then they stared to straighten out.  It was fun and different while it lasted and Father never did find out where about half of his whiskey went.