In 1946, George Burd sent me to fix some fence on a farm he had purchased from Ames Rogers there on Greenwood Hill because he wanted to sell it.
Flora here. Albert said he needed me to go and help him. I think he and George had cooked up a plan to get me to agree to buy that farm. And it worked.
Well, we fixed fence for awhile and it began to rain awful. Flora and I went into the house for shelter. No one had lived there for years. It kept raining, so we looked the place over good. It needed a lot of work; but, we made the decision we would like to buy it right there that day.
Louise here. Being 12, when I finally saw it, I couldn't believe my parents had bought this dilapidated old place. And, they wanted us to move in.
We continued to work on the place on Sundays. And, as Flora said Lloyd and Bernice Mann would help us. It was one of these Sunday's that a neighbor boy brought his dog over and was playing with the boys in the yard when all of a sudden everyone was screaming that the dog had bit Bobby. Lloyd grabbed a piece of sheet and dipped it in the spring to try and clean him up; but, he was bleeding quite bad near his eye. We all jumped in my old panel truck and started driving to the hospital in Hornell. Flora kept saying, "Go faster." After about ten times, I finally said, "This truck can't go any faster." His eye was okay, they stitched him up; but, he got a pretty big scar from it.
I wasn't anxious to move. Flora, now, that was a different story. You know Flora. When she gets something in her mind, there is no stopping her and I was to just jump and do it. When I didn't, you know, one day in the spring around Easter, she came to the barn and told me she was moving and off she went with Ezzy and Stub riding on top of two beds and some household items in an iron wheeled wagon with a couple of horses. I even hitched the horses for her.
At least she left Louise to help me with the two little ones, Kappy and Bobby.
Yeah, Dad, Louise here, I was scared that she had left us for good. Dad still had to milk and go to the milk plant everyday and he still needed to get us wood for the stove. So, I was in charge of the household chores and the little ones.
So, I went to George and told him that Flora had moved and that I would have us out of the house in a week. I got some boxes from the grocery store and told Louise to put our stuff in them. And, she did. It is a wonder everything wasn't broken because she did exactly what I asked, she just put the stuff in the boxes, no paper, no wrapping. I took a load to the Greenwood Hill farm each day after everything else was done.
Flora, she already told you about me dumping all her furniture at the dump. Dang it, it had been piled in a storage room for years, just gathering dust. We did not have room for it at the new place. So I just got rid of it before she could do anything about it.
I asked some family to help me get my cattle, horses and machinery over there. Everything I had earned from our 7 years on the Burd farm. The place was lookin' pretty good. But, we were back to no electricity, a woodstove for heat and still an outhouse which we were used to.
Farming wasn't our entire living. Flora got a job at the Andover Silk Mill and I did some carpentry for Uncle Clarence Wyse. That left Louise to do most of the household chores like washing and ironing and getting dinner started. All the kids helped out with the farm chores and house cleaning from a very young age. I would tell Flora that the kids could wear their clothes more than once. But, she would not have any of that. She said, "Kids need to be clean to go to school."
The Greenwood School Board said that we were too far off the road and it was not in good shape, it was too dangerous to bring a bus in to pick the kids up for school. So they walked the mile out to Pease Road everyday. Flora told them to stay on the road to make sure they knew the way and to talk really loud so the hunters would not shoot toward the road. Winter was really hard for them. Snow would drift on the road and they were basically wading out like they were in water.
Louise here. One day it was so bad that I had to walk Ezzy out and go back for Kappy and take her out. Stub walked Bobby out. I got frost bite. And, you already heard what Mother did about that.
That first year, as Flora shared, we cut all the hay we had on the farm. I used Molly and Dolly and rotated Old Dan in as both were expecting fowls. All the kids worked to pitch the hay onto what Flora called the stone boat, a big piece of metal that we would have the horses pull. And, at the barn, they would help pitch it off then follow the horses back to the field to do it again. It was a slow process and we did not get enough for the winter.
Now, Flora told you about that somesabitch that sold me rotten hay that killed all my new calves, fowls, then my horses and finally all the cows. I had nothing left come spring. Seven years of work and nothing for it. Somehow, we paid the mortgage and the taxes. And, as we got some money, I would buy calves to start again.
Evelyn here. Bath time was Saturday night. Water was heated on the stove and poured into a laundry tub. All we had was soap, even for our hair. In a fit of frustration, I finally asked mother, "Can't we get some shampoo?!" There wasn't money for things from the grocery store, not even sugar, flour, coffee or tea, most times. And, especially not shampoo. She finally did buy some.
Every year, I butchered a pig and a cow to provide meat for the winter. The boys and I would hunt for rabbits, squirrels, deer and wild turkey to supplement. The girls would round up greens to eat too.
We also made maple syrup. The trees were tapped with spigots with shortening cans hung to catch the sap. I hooked the horses to the stone boat and the kids would empty the sap from the buckets into a tub on the boat. I would boil it down in a big pot hanging from an arch over a fire up in the woods.
Kathleen here. And, we would store it in jars to be used for pancakes, taffy, candy, frosting for cakes or whatever. If we ran out of sugar, we used it on our cereal and in coffee. Bob still makes syrup on the farm. My kids always bring some back to Virginia.
I grew cash crops with Clarence Simons. Hours and days of plowing and dragging. In the fall, we harvested. The kids had to help. Bobby rode the grain binder. All the kids set up the bundles to make sure they did not get wet and mildew. Then we thrashed.
Bobby here. When I was younger, it was my job to level the grain. As I got older, I went to the field to help fork the bundles onto the wagon.
Money was always tight, but, I loved movies. I had always found a way to go to the movies on Saturday nights as a youngster and that continued; I would pack up the kids and we would go to the picture show in Andover. Westerns were my favorite. I also loved to read about the west and history in general.
Bobby here. Yes, Dad would give us each a nickel for candy. The girls would buy a candy bar and eat it all during the movie. I would buy a big box of JuJi Fruits. I would eat some and save the rest for a treat all week. The girls would beg for me to share with them, but, I said no. You know, just recently, I told Ezzy the truth, I bought those candies just so I could tease the girls. I am not even sure I liked them.
We had been at the farm about three years when Flora got another of her bright ideas to make changes to the house. She was always wantin' changes. She gave all the kids hammers and crowbars and told them to take the wall down between the kitchen and dining room. And, to make sure it was done before I got home from work. I walked in, and just started putting that wall back up. Years later, she was at it again. This time, some boys from town that were visiting Ezzy and Kappy helped make a giant mess. Those kids were still cleaning up lathe and plaster pail by pail out to the wagon the next day.
You know, I am a pretty easy going person, when Flora would get mad at me for who knows what, I would just grab my gun and go hunting or go sleep in the hay loft in the barn.
Louise again, looking back, Dad was not a born farmer. He was more a carpenter or a mason. He could do anything with his hands, like fix motors. Stub and Bobby were the same way.
I raised the calves and was milking again. A few years later, we got a new road into the farm from Williamson. It was a muddy mess; we couldn't travel by car on it. Well, that next winter, we were still walking over a mile to get out, Flora and I for work, and the kids for the bus. The town only had equipment that could plow as far as the gully. Come spring, if I was home working during the day, I would take a wagon pulled by a tractor to bring the kids back from the bus.
As I said, farming was not our living and when customers stopped paying me for my work, Flora said, "Albert you go to Freem' and Mildred's, and get Frank Sackett, here tonight. Freeman and Mildred Rogers lived in the house just above the gully and now Frank, he lived in Jasper and was a cattle broker, Well, I wasn't happy about it; but, I did it. Sold all the cattle.
I went to work for Ingersoll Rand in Painted Post. Factory work. I did not like factory work. I was tired and started being a bit snippy even with the kids. One night, I was driving home in the snow. Drifts were high and it was blowing so bad I couldn't see. It was around 2 AM after my shift, I guess I may have fallen asleep. Next thing I know, I'm in a snow bank. Had to walk home. That was it for me. I did not go back to that job.
Stub here. One other time, Dad was coming home with the truck in a storm. He was driving through some deep drifts. He hit a drift out front of where we built that house there on Williamson. Wrecked the transmission. They had only the one vehicle, so the next day, Dad got a neighbor to take him to buy another transmission. He had no way to get the truck home, so he replaced the transmission right there in the road; it was freezing cold. Good thing they didn't plow past the gully. No traffic.
Now, I worked a lot of jobs over the years, building schools and houses. When I was with Ford and Peckham, I put up buildings all over New York and Pennsylvania. They were used for grocery stores or other businesses. Toward the end of my working years, I worked at Iroquois Telephone doing building maintenance. But, I will tell you more about that next time, maybe.
Next up: Those kids of mine just kept bringing more young'ns to the farm.