Biography Page 2
As I was told, I remained in the Ainsworth Hospital for several days then we started our journey back to the ranch. This was a very long trip for me as not all of the road was paved. We rambled down the road for about 30 miles to the Reyman ranch turnoff at Arabia. The road to the ranch was rough, had many up and downs through blowouts of nothing but sand as this was known as the "dirty 30's"! Bruce Sr. had to stop and open a fence gate in several locations. He would get out of the auto, open the fence gate, get back in and drive through, then out to close the gate. "As I remember", my stomach turned and tossed the total seven miles. What a ride for being so young! Edith was young and took the ride in good stride.
The next five to seven years was normal for me during my growing up years. Yet today, I can remember the crib that I used during my early days - what a memory! During this time my younger brother was born and I had to share my life with him being around and getting most of the attention. At about six years old, I can remember that I was always hiding from Bruce and Edith. I would hide in the old storm shelter on the ridge just north of the house. Enjoying a trip to town was my very first fun thing to do and when the parents could not find me, they would just get into the auto and honk the horn! I would come running for the great journey to Valentine, Nebraska. Naturally, this would not happen and I would get scolded!
My first ranch chores was gathering the eggs from the hen house and emptying the ashes from the coal and wood burning stove. This seemed a tireless choir but someone had to take care of the "job", and I was selected. As I turned a little older, the next added choir was helping with the "milking" in the morning and the evening. As I remember, we had eight to fourteen to milk seven days a week. At first it was fun then it grew to be not so fun of a thing. In the summer, the cows would swing their tail back and forth to rid the flies and the tail would hit me in the "face". The fun thing was feeding the cats in the milk barn. If the "squirt" was aimed correctly, the cat would have a great feast and if not, the cat would get soaked! Sometimes it was more fun to soak the cat then to feed them. Bruce seemed to have a good understanding when he noted the wet cats. It was normally to have four to eight cats around at any one time.
During the calving months I helped feed the cattle that Bruce Sr. had in the pens. He would take care of his cattle as if they were children. This was probably OK as they always looked good for selling when the time came around. Learned to ride horses at a very early age. Spent a lot of time riding to our neighbor's, to visit Jackie and Dick Kreycik. They lived about one mile to the south east of our ranch buildings and we normally crossed the meadow to get to their home. When we would get together, we mostly rode our horses and just had a great time.
At the age of five or so, started to elementary school. Our school was located at Arabia adjacent to highway 20 about one mile from our turn to country roads. For several years we would take turns with our neighbors in driving to school. Most of the time my mother took us in the 1938 Chrysler. In the winter months we would take a hot meal of some kind to share with other class mates. This would alternate between three families that lived on our rode route to school. As I recall, for about two years I rode to school by horseback. We would ride southwest of our home for about five miles and arrive at Arabia School. It was my job to take the saddle off the horse and make sure they had hay and water for the day. The school had an old barn that would keep about six horses. Most of the time the barn was full of snakes and they would scare us plenty!
It was during the summer at the age of around five or so, that my parents wanted me to take piano lessons. So we would drive to Valentine one a week for lessons. I suppose that I took lessons for six to seven years and learned to read music very well. This helped me during my high school years when I learned to play the tenor saxophone.
Much of our my summer was spent in the large gardens that my parents planted. It was normal to have at least 1/2 acre of corn, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers etc. I would just get finished hoeing something to have to start on another patch. I guess it did not hurt me but sure was a lot of work. Bruce Sr. had great gardens most of the time. During the winter months we would sprout the potatoes that was stored in the old storm cellar. We must of had four to six large bins to sprout through the winter and spring months. We would keep back a bunch of sprouted potatoes for planting time.