RUDIMENTS, pt. 1,352
(tiresome and long days)
Those chicken-coops were only
the half of it. Once I began seeing
the interiors of peoples' homes and
kitchens, the entire paradigm changed.
I felt bolstered and renewed! These
farm folks were serious students of
making do : things were old, faucets
were still singles, stoves and sinks were
antiquated and little updated, and no
one bother (toilets too), and farm people
weren't bothered over it, nor cared of the
cosmetics. It all was just kept in a
working state. Farmers were quite
handy with repairs and fix-ups on the
fly.
-
Coming from where I had lived, I'd
never seen homes in such conditions
of old and repair, Wainscoting and
nice wood finishes, decorative reliefs
and carvings, stuff that was already 75
years old and getting older. It was all
a sort of informal wonder, and it was
all kept up with little awareness. The
old kitchens were the best! A quantity
of the bathrooms were add-ons, obviously
tacked onto the house and incorporated
in when plumbing for that became easy
and everyday. Same often with electrifying
the house - often there were insulated,
heavily fabric-covered/insulated wires
snaking along baseboards or moldings
when the electricity was brought in. I
figured, for much of this and from what
stories I'd heard by the people, it was
1930's stuff. Amazing, regardless.
-
Everyone was always busy at something;
even the children had their chores - after
school, Saturdays, whatever - the clean-ups
of the slops and cow-droppings, the cleaning
of the milk pails (stainless steel, usually). The
men tinkered, did mechanic and vehicle work,
changed fluids and lubricants, or just went over
the machinery. There was lots of that. Each
farmyard had its own 50 or 100 gallon gas
pump. I always thought that, too, was cool.
The creamery trucks, and the fuel trucks were
always on their rounds, stopping at each farm,
like the breadman did in Avenel (about the only
comparison I could make), and they were
always vying or space - cramped entries
and cramped driveways.
-
Barns were centers of activity, and - up top -
the haylofts too. They took tending and some
attention. There was always the danger of heat
buildup (the drying hay bales produced heat)
and the idea of 'spontaneous combustion' was
often bandied about and watched out for. Barn
fires were NOT uncommon, and they spread
quickly. It was always a danger.
-
A sick or ailing cow often necessitated a visit
from the cow vet or farm-animal vet. Everyone
knew each other and kept farm accounts Mastitis
(an udder-disease which swelled up and solidified
the cow's milk/udder), was a danger and needed to
be caught quickly - large needle injections by the
vet - with instructions to us on how to inspect the
udders as we milked then, visual and touch, and
what telltale signs to know. It was a spreadable
disease, and contagious very.
-
Sometimes, at the end of a day of, say 5:30-5:30
work, I'd be bushed and smelly too. Cow and barn
odors linger and cling. During the year or so I
worked for Warren, after Whitehall, it was a daily
big-job, but I most enjoyed those days when I'd
be shown what fields to take on, mowing hay,
or cutting corn-stalks, and that day was an all
day affair on the back of the tractor. It was great,
with breaks for lunch, and dinner too if I wanted
and in the long lights of evening. Our two properties
abutted each other, so they were close enough for
walking, and often enough the wives would visit,
or be together, cooking or something, or running
into town and the bright red '66 Ford Warren had.
Tiresome, long days, and often nighttime was
just a welcome relief.
No comments:
Post a Comment