This here is me with my dog Lindy. And, to celebrate her, here is a poem written by my father Frank:
True Friendship
Some men will wish you hail,
Yet wish you with the devil.
But, when a good dog wags his tail,
You know he's on the level.
A bit about my parents. My name is Marshall Francis Warriner (1889-1974), son of Francis Lazelle (Frank) Warriner (1866-1945) and Susan E Barnard. Mom's family lived next door to Dad at the top of the hill. I had a sister Vinnie Marie born in 1897.
Dad and I worked the farm together. At one point, Dad bought two registered Holstein cows. Sadly, one of them never birthed a calf. All of our cattle down through the years were descended from that one cow.
Mom, became quite ill and was an invalid for some years before her death in 1926. I was grown and married with two children by then. Dad moved into the village...the house next door to John and Blanche Wallace. On the other side was my uncle Ed Scribner and his wife Ambrosia, my mother's half sister. A quick story about Uncle Ed; he was the "poor master" for a time in Greenwood, distributing food to indigent people, much of which was mutton. Dad once accused Ed of "having wool in his teeth". Do you know what that means? I will let you look it up. Dad worked at Young and Young as a clerk. Do you recognize him there to the right behind Ellen Young? I don't know who the other gentleman was, do you?
Dad remarried Mittie Schenk of West Jasper. My brother-in-law Clifton Rounds and I moved her worldly goods to Greenwood with two horse-drawn hay wagons. Now, Mittie took great pains to hide her chamber pot under other items; but, when we reached the outskirts of West Jasper, we pulled it out and hung it on the "standard" in the front of the lead wagon. While the chamber pot incident had nothing to do with it, Mittie and Dad were not married long; she died in 1931.
Let's get on with my story, shall we? I mentioned that I married before my mother passed away. Well, I married Iowa Verle Hayes (1891-1956) on November 24, 1910. We had three children, Allen (for my grandfather) in 1916. He lived less than a year. Iowa never got over that. Years later in the 1950s, she could be found still weeping for Allen. Second was Verle in 1917 and Wayne in 1919. Here is a picture of Verle.
I never left the farm. There were times I wished that I could have had other opportunities; but, I loved my horses.
Wayne Jr (grandson) here. I remember Grandpa harnessing them, putting on new shoes, pulling the hay mower and pulling that rope to lift the loose hay up to the mow. I heard tales of Prince and Perch and then Bess and Babe. Bess broke Babe's leg; so Babe was replaced by a strawberry roan named Gyp. Then Beauty, a dapple gray Percheron, became Gyp's partner. Poor Gyp died of colic and Beauty was matched with Nancy. Nancy was mean; she would bite and didn't want shoes on her hind feet. What I remember was Grandpa trying to shoe her and me learning a lot of new words!
Well, probably wasn't the last time he heard 'em.
Wayne Sr (son) here. Dad was an original board member of the Steuben Rural Electric Association. The substation in south Canisteo was named for him. He also served on the Greenwood Town Board for many years. They met at Young's store. Ellen Young was the Town Clerk.
Wayne Jr back. Grandpa always patronized that store; probably because his Dad had worked there. I would go with him. Young's sold dry goods; groceries on the left and clothing and footwear on the right. They always had a wheel of cheddar cheese under a glass dome. They sold salted herring for which Grandpa had a taste and which I learned to eat.
Grandpa Marshall always bought a new pair of over-the-shoe boots called Arctics. They had four buckles. One year the boots had FIVE. Grandpa bought them; but, cursed them all winter.
"Yes, I did. Many a time, I wished Ellen had that extra buckle snapped across her a**!"
My wife Iowa was a very good homemaker...a saint really. It wasn't until 1945 that we got electricity. Even then she still used a wood stove to cook and we still used an outhouse. She took that trip across a plank bridge out near the chicken coop and hog house until 1954. Along with indoor plumbing, she finally got an electric range.
Wait Wayne Jr again. I want to tell about the pancake episode. While Grandma was still using the wood stove, she would make the most excellent sourdough buckwheat pancakes. She would mix the batter in an old porcelain pitcher and set it on the Hoosier cabinet to "work" overnight. Then, fire up the stove in the morning and we would have breakfast when Grandpa returned from the barn. That fateful morning, the pancakes were more tasty than usual. But, we all got violently ill minutes after we ate. It took awhile to figure out why. Grandpa went to retrieve the pills that the vet had left the night before for an ailing cow to find that they had most likely fallen from the top of the cabinet and into the batter. Grandma never made buckwheat pancakes again. It was years later when I was in vet school, that I learned that one of the ingredients in those pills was nux vomica, another name for strychnine.
Wayne Sr again. About a year after Mom died, Dad remarried Lena Acomb, a widow he had courted back before 1910. They lived in Canisteo for a time before moving back to the farm. Dad outlived Lena and stayed on the farm until he went into nursing care in Tioga County where his father was born.
Well, I survived Iowa poisoning me with strychnine; but, I could not fend off old age. Next time, I think my son, Wayne, may tell you a bit about his life. I may just drop back in to hear what he has to say. See you then.