Page 177 - REALLY What A time Book IX

REALLY SO WHAT
What A Time

COUSINS

The Wilmont’s were our cousins. They lived in Rome about
15 miles away. In the 1940’s they had a large white house with
a wrap-around porch with banisters and columns. In back
above the garage was a chicken coop, and a long garden.
Behind the garden was a creek.

The creek ran along over some rapids and made a bend
creating a deep hole, over my head. As we learned to swim
that became a great spot for us.
Up on the farm, Uncle Howard had an orange Ford tractor,
that we used to ride on the fenders as he worked the fields.
He would also let us ride on the hay wagon. Hay was raked
and then freely collected onto the hay wagon. Today hay is cut
and rolled into large tight bales, then wrapped in plastic.
Sometimes wrapped together looking like a white worm laying
in the field. Barns are not used so much today to store hay.

If we were lucky he would let us ride on the manure spreader.
Not everyone was able to do that. Joe especially liked it, as he
got to work the levers that spread it. For years, even into
college he wanted to be a farmer. It wasn’t until Uncle
Raymond pointed out that it would take a million dollars or
more to buy a farm. He finally gave it up and became a
Ceramic Engineer. This switch served him well as the
Electronics industry was just beginning, in the late 1950’s and
Ceramics played a large roll in it’s success.
The coolest fun was in the barn. After the hay was cut and
stored we could play in it.

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