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[Don Bowen KI6DIU <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

At 11/6/2007, you wrote:
> Yes, corn.  I remember wheat and oats and soybeans and hayfields, but I
> really remember corn.

We grew mostly corn but also soybeans in rotation.  As for wheat we had a 
15 acre allotment.

I remember running though the corn using your arms as shields and getting 
the undersides scratched. It was always a cool place to play in the hot 
summer.  Walk down to the canal or just the little creek and play in the 
water then walk back through the corn field.

We picked corn and stored it in a crib.  Then my uncle had a truck mounted 
sheller and would come by and shell what we or our neighbor needed for hog 
feed.  I still have the nasty scar from when my brother and I ran one of 
our concoctions down the hill into the pile of cobs.  I fell off and got my 
leg caught in the chain.  I spent a lot of time as a kid getting hurt in 
one of my brothers concoctions.

As for mistreating little brothers, there is one my mother still 
remembers.  After plowing my father would put grease on the plow to make it 
easier to scour the next time.  He usually used grease that was left in the 
bottom of the bucket.  One time he got his hands on some really stringy, 
sticky, heavy black oil.  My brother and I greased the plow then played 
with the grease by writing our names in the dust and drawing things.  The 
our youngest brother came by to see what we were doing so we got him in on 
the act.  Before we were done we had him completely covered from head to 
toe with that stuff.  We then wisely decided it was time to play in the 
creek for at least the rest of the day.  Our little brother went to the 
house where our mother had a real fit.  She had to strip him outside and 
dump him in the wash tub with the strongest soap she could find.  We played 
in the water until after dark but we were still in deep trouble when we got 
home.  My mother to this day still remembers that little escapade along 
with a few others.

We had about 200 acres of corn and bean fields, about 50 acres of pasture, 
many acres of neighboring woods, plus a little creek, 3 ponds, and a 
drainage canal to play in.  We also had a shop with a welder and a junk 
yard and we put all that to use.  My mother says that she did not know 
where we were most of the summer.  As I think of it, it is a wonder we did 
not get hurt worse that we did.


Don Bowen              Awl Knotted Up                       KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com