Gramps Remembers

 The Outsider

 
I grew up in NE Wisconsin on my dad’s farm. It was not very big, about 17 acres and mostly river bottoms that flooded every spring at ice-out. I often referred to it as my dad’s hobby farm, as he had maybe 5 acres of tillable land, an old barn, machine shed, and a small apple orchard.  It was situated on a high bank of the Peshtigo River in the middle sugar bush and considered by some to be the original farm in this valley in a bygone era. 

 

But back to their beginning.

Dad and mom grew up in central Illinois and after they were married, decided to relocate to a new area far from their families, as their parents did not approve of their marriage, and thus were also not accepted by the locals.

So, they made their move to Marinette County in 1950, to start over, with me riding in the front seat and my older sister in the back. They initially settled on a small farm on County Road G, and then moved to Marinette, WI.

 
Ten 10 years later, while driving the middle sugar bush roads looking for a new place to live, they found their forever home on the Peshtigo River. The nearest neighbor was ¼ mile away on the gravel road. Mom and dad liked their privacy and solitude with seldom getting visitors! The few exceptions were canvassers or people from a church that were out and about. Dad would send the church evangelicals packing as he did not want to listen to their dogmas.  

Mom nicknamed their farm “under the ledge” as it is in the Peshtigo River valley that flows thru the high limestone bluffs from the last glacial ice age. On a clear night, we could hear the semi-trucks tires howl on the pavement of highway 64 by Harmony WI as they traveled to their destinations and could see the northern lights dance across the northern sky.

I often told my mom that making friends was difficult and her reply was that we had moved here recently and unless my father and grandfather had walked the fields with local grandfathers and great grandfathers, we would never be accepted by neighbors, or I by my classmates. Trying to date local gals was often met with “I would not date or dance with you, even if you were the last boy on earth!” So, I seldom dated as my focus was on moving to a new area.

Mom encouraged me to find friends thru 4H from different areas rather than close to home.  I then became involved in 4H and its many projects, went to wrestling practice after school, read books, and helped dad on some projects, gardening, animal husbandry around the farm.

One classmate said several years later that it seemed my attention was focused on studies, 4H, and not concerned with making friends in school.

After graduating, I worked for the summer, before leaving for the University of Minnesota with an intent to study forestry management and seldom came back for a visit. Instead, of finishing college, my inner fires were stoked when I worked on a church in Cannon Falls MN as an apprentice carpenter, and from there started a new journey as a tradesman in carpentry. 

But, that is another story for later.....