Dad is fond of saying he was born the last day of 1935. The
year his mother discovered she was pregnant they were living out of a wagon working
a ranch hand job. Later that year they
moved into a homestead shack. This was
not a city guy living the soft life. I
hear tales that his father wasn’t the nicest guy, which also probably affected
Pa’s life. I can tell that his mother doted on him from
the many photos of his childhood, and from the way he talks about her. My mother only knew her for a few years, but
she really loved her too. She describes
her as a nice, soft-spoken, kind woman.
Granny died the year I was born.
Dad was what I would call a rootin tootin cowboy. He broke horses, rode rodeo stock, boxed in
the Golden Gloves, and flew a personal plane (at times to a bar somewhere). He doesn’t eat wild game because that is what
they grew up on - it was very often all they had. He called eggs “chicken eggs,” simply because
when he was growing up they also ate guinea eggs and duck eggs, and a chicken
egg comes from a chicken. What he and my
mother gave to me was a childhood that just can’t be beat. Dad was a farmer rancher, and I was a daddy’s
girl. I remember having my blanket on
the floor of the combine looking out the glass, spending the day farming with
him with packed lunches in the field and an ice cold yellow and white water jug.
Memories include chickens and gardening
with my mom, a one room school house, an outhouse, canning, a baby deer, baby
lambs, and so much more.
He sure gets a kick out of that gravestone of his and I say
job well done, Pa. I might also mention
that he built his own pine coffin to cut down on expenses, but that particular
fact doesn’t always impress folks. Did I
say he has a whole lot of “character”?
Love you Dad.
Really enjoyed reading you story! My daughter writes her favorite memories in her blog and I so enjoy reading them...
ReplyDeleteThank you Gail. Please do share your daughters blog, I'm sure I would love it!
DeleteYour Pa did a great job on his little girl! She turned out to be a beautiful, hardworking woman!
ReplyDeleteThank you Colette, I really do appreciate that. B
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