Under the Ledge: Gramps Remembers, Being a helper

Being a helper

November 20th, 1964, the day before deer hunting season opener, my friend, Lee received a phone call while in wrestling practice that his sister would be picking us up soon because his father was in a car accident on Hwy 64, not far from the cedar swamps. A deer had darted across the road and Lee’s father had swerved to miss it but was hit head on by a west bound car.

We arrived at the scene of the accident and found out that dad had been taken to a chiropractor by his request for some adjustments. So, we headed there and picked up Lee’s father, took me home, and then they went home. Later that evening Lee’s father started coughing up blood so they took him to the hospital for an evaluation. The impact had moved his internal organs and he was bleeding internally.

He was there for a few weeks, when I received a call from Lee just before Christmas 1964, asking for a favor. He said that his dad was being transported to a Madison Hospital as his internal injuries were life threatening. So, could I and my father take care of the farm and milking the cows while they were gone. I said yes. Lee said to meet me at the barn, and he would show me what to do. That night, we did chores together and he left for Madison the following morning.

Later that night, my dad said he could help me, and I replied that I could do this and thanks for the offer. Just give me a ride over in the morning at 5AM so I could get the feeding the cows and milking done by the time the school bus came to pick me up. Then pick me up in the evening when I was finished with the evening chores. Included in this was taking care of 2 cocker spaniels which included feeding and letting them out morning and night.

Dad would drop me off in my work clothes at 5AM and we would head to the barn. Feeding the cows was 1st in the list and that meant climbing up the silo to pitch silage down for loading up the feed bunks and added mash to it, then \then we moved onto setting up the milking machines. Prior to milking each cow, I would clean the udder and teats to attach the milker and bucket. While the cows were being milked, I would clean the gutters and aisle and empty the milking buckets into a large milk can. The system was run by a vacuum pump that sucked the milk out of the cow’s udder into the milk bucket.

As each cow was milked, the milk can would fill up and when filled it was moved to the milk house and a new milk can brought into the barn. After the all the cows milked, cows fed, and barn cleaned I headed up the house to feed and let the dogs out. While the dogs were out, I cleaned up and changed into my school clothes. Then I let the dogs back in and ran to catch the bus to school and dad would go home.

That evening, I was dropped off by the bus and the cycle continued for the next 4 weeks. I was becoming quite familiar with doing the milking chores on the farm.

Then Lee called me and told me they would be home the following day. Lee’s dad passed away Friday, January 13, 1965 in Madison Wisconsin. I did the last round of chores the next morning and Lee resumed doing them Saturday evening.

Lee stopped going to wrestling practice and other sports as he was busy keeping the farm together.

Later that spring, Lee stopped by on a Saturday and dropped off a package of beef, a cocker spaniel puppy,and his varsity letter jacket as a thank you gift. The pup took to dad immediately as they became inseparable.

Lee graduated from high school, sold the cattle, enlisted in the Navy Seabees as a heavy equipment operator. He did two tours of duty in Vietnam before returning home.

After his last tour of duty, he went to work at Badger paper mill and worked the farm planting crops. By this time I was a senior and had just graduated from high school, and I had a summer job at Jitterbug Sander Company in Menominee Michigan. I was also enrolled at the University of Minnesota. That summer, I would help Lee on the farm and we often double dated going to movies on weekends.

40 years later, we are still in contact with each other and friends. While I like building bird houses