Summer on the Farm
The school year is ended, summer vacations begins and with it the potential for idle time increases from hours to days, very likely a situation that Social Services is watching carefully. However, the prospect of seven children home alone and seven minds conjuring up all sorts of ways to get in trouble has been on Charlie's mind for some time. The announcement came at the dinner table. Dad folded his napkin, looked around at seven anxious faces, and smiled. ‘This summer,’ he said, "the older boys will stay at home and continue to work at Herzel's drug store, Shupps cleaners and the Cunningham's farm. Denny, Kathleen, John and Paul will join KeKe Gustina on a farm.’”
Dad will drive the younger kids to Java Center, about 35 miles away to spend the summer with Frank and Louise Mingle, friends of the Gustinas. Their children are roughly the same ages as our kids except they have one girl and three boys. The kids will be working on the farm, picking potatoes, milking cows, feeding the pigs and will help with cooking, washing and other chores, as they do at home. They will have time to ride horses, watch the beavers building a dam and play games. And they will be paid enough for them to buy personal items when they go to town. The children are excited about the news, especially the boys who of coarse can't wait to meet the Mingle girls!
When they arrive in Java Center, the family learns about a few things that Dad left out. There is an outhouse located a short walk from the house which is fairly easy to find in the middle of the night, provided the moon shines. There is no electricity so laundry is washed by hand. The farm has a water well with a faucet in the back yard but has no power and used lanterns for light. All of the children worked during the day, milking cows, feeding pigs and picking potatoes. Everyone is up at daybreak, breakfast served after the cows were milked and containers set out for dairyman to pickup. Dinner was at noon and a snack when all the work was done.
On Saturday afternoon, everyone lined up in the kitchen, girls in one line and boys in another. Everyone took off their cloths (everything) and one by one Lucille (a big strong woman) helped each of us up to sit on the sink. There she proceeded to scrub our bodies with a bristle brush... (ouch) until our skin turned red and often felt burning. Then she helped us down and we put our cloths back on. Most of those in line were of ages where their bodies were showing maturity especially obvious for the girls. Any one in the room caught laughing, smiling or staring got immediate call up by Louise for a hard smack on the face.
Dad leaves for home and Frank outlines the daily work schedule. Up at 5am to milk the cows with John the "jumper" (jumps on cow's rump to make them stand up), Paul the "sweeper" (uses a whisk broom to remove sow bugs from the udder) and the older boys do the milking, pouring each bucket full of milk into milk containers and placing them out near the road where the milk company truck will collect them.
