Helping Grandma with the Chickens

My father had a lust for automobiles. When he came out of the CCC camps, prepared to go to war, he told me he would buy a Model A for $50 and then drive it until it quit. Sell that one for $25 and then go find another one for $50 to drive. I don't know if that is true , because I don't remember. It was before I was born.

I do know that he bought a brand-new 1939 Buick sedan. With that car he wooed my mother during her senior year in high school. He drove her to the distant city of Eau Claire to see his sister and her family and buy my mother a huge 1/4 carat diamond engagement ring. They were married on June 1 just after Mom graduated from high school.

Earlier, Dad had signed up for the Army, but when he got to Milwaukee in 1941, they washed him out for having a punctured eardrum, probably from his Golden Gloves boxing, and myopia with astigmatism. Incidentally, the same problems that the very first Congressional Medal of Honor winner had, but fooled the doctors, when he overtook a Japanese machine gun nest at the start of the War in the Pacific.

They rented a shack from a farmer a mile out of the little town where Dad was born, Owen, Wisconsin. Named after Mr. Owen, owner of the box factory where my Dad's father worked and my Dad's aunt was second-in-command. The shack was one room with a hole under the door. Some evenings, Dad would sit on the bed and watch that hole to plink an unfortunate rat that might stick its head inside. They didn't have to eat the rats. Squirrels were a favorite food in those days. Slightly bigger and better tasting.

My twin brother Roger and I may have been somewhat of a surprise, but probably not, on a cold, dark December 21, 1942. We were beset with childhood diseases and Roger had a concussion while being born. Used to kid him that I, "Kicked him out," and always dominated him. But he was a good sport and always challenged me in everything we did. I'm glad I don't remember scarlet fever and some of the other ailments we had, starting around three years old. Winter colds were constant in those days.

But Roger and I were fast starters. I was walking and talking by the time I was 10 months old. There was nothing holding us back. One day, when we were two and Mom must not have been looking. Roger and I decided that it would be a good idea to push over the beehives that the farmer had near our shack. I'm glad I don't remember, because the angry bees almost killed our little rat terrier, Rags, as he fought to defend us from those killers and their stings. Back in the shack, Mom was kept busy for some time pulling stingers out of the three of us and swatting bees that were flying around inside the place, still angry. I don't know if Dad had to pay the farmer any damages.

Before I could remember, our parents bought an old farmhouse on State Highway 29 on the western edge of town. We learned early not to play in the front yard close to the highway, it was too dangerous with all the traffic going by all day and night long. There was a huge woodstove where Mom was queen of cooking and canning. It was always warm and smelled great in that kitchen. We were two lucky kids to have such a talented mother.

Copyright © Ronald W. Hull

5/28/19