My family moved to a farm at the end of my teen years. Since my parents worked in education, they were home a lot with us (my siblings and myself) in the summer. We traveled sometimes, camping was the preferred travel arrangement, but we also did things that seemed normal to me, but I have come to realize were by no means universal.
My parents usually planted a garden. After we were out on the farm, the garden got large. We had beans and tomatoes, always. Some gardens included strawberries, asparagus, peppers and other things. I never really thought about it until I was an adult planting my own garden. Mom froze or canned some vegetables and gave lots of it away.
We made weekly trips to the public library in the nearest town. It was important to find enough books to last at least a week or two. I liked to find a good series so that I could just load up on the next one. After we got home from the library, the house was quiet with everyone reading. We owned a lot of books because my parents were teachers. I read through dozens of Reader's Digest Condensed books.
We usually had pets and livestock that needed tending. At one time there were 17 cats on the farm. Old Doc Vol told us when he visited to see to the hogs or cattle to catch all the friendly cats and he gave them rabies shots. He said that any usually unfriendly cat that suddenly changed should be avoided. I liked to climb up to the barn loft. There were often kittens.
There weren't a lot of jobs that paid money out on the farm. There was help with the farming that Dad did. But, by and large there was a lot of free time, time to be bored or lonely. I learned to be self-reliant. I learned to entertain myself. I learned not to be bored.
No comments:
Post a Comment