BRANDON WISCONSIN RR-2 53919
John Keats, the English poet, during his short and tragic life,
wrote some meaningful lines about ‘a thing of beauty’ being
‘a joy forever.’ And then we all know the saying,
‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.’ I can’t seem to
run down the source of this one.
I have a neighbor who says she has seen so much ‘old
stuff’ all of her life, she would settle for something new
without a second thought. But aren’t the old and the new so
wonderfully interwoven as to be complimentary one to the other?
My husband reported to me last evening that he had resurrected
the harnesses from the best team of horses he ever had and hung
them up decently. They had laid in a pile of ‘stuff’ for
years. Oh! What a flood of memories came over me as I remembered
that unevenly matched and yet cooperative team. Their fly nets are
still around as well. He also hung them up.
Lady was a plump and calm dark brown work horse. Pete was
somewhat rangy, more of a roan color. He habitually jumped forward
in his harness as though he was going to pull the whole load by
himself. But when the load got heavy with fresh fragrant hay, or
other produce, Lady dug her steady feet determinedly into the
ground and really pulled.
Those were the days when the milk was hauled by sleigh – in
emergency, and my Mr. B. was a milk hauler. One awesome winter,
snow almost covered us. The telephone rang constantly. ‘What
are we going to do with our milk?’ was the query. It was way
below zero and the roads were closed. Plus this, we were so young
and inexperienced.
The usual delivery station was six miles away, but a cooperative
butter maker nearer to us offered to take what he could handle. His
haulers weren’t getting in either. This would save some of the
produce. So all the neighbors helped to get a sleigh track
open.
So it was that my young husband gathered milk together by team
and sleigh. He then took it to Mr. Olson’s creamery the same
way. One night we had 87 cans full of milk in our kitchen over
night, to keep it from freezing solid. We prayed the floor would
hold and it did.
As he was gathering this milk together he used Pete and Lady as
his partners. One particularly stormy day he took his trusty team
north up County Trunk M. I saw him disappear through the cut north
of the house with real fear in my heart. The empty cans rattled in
the zero air. He was gone about two hours. I was keeping a vigil at
the north window praying for his safe return.
The cut was filling up with snow. My fear was mounting. Would he
and Pete and Lady make it? Darkness was settling in. Little Paul
clung to my skirts. I picked up the baby for comfort. AT LAST! AT
LAST! I saw the shadowy figures of two straining horses wallowing
and floundering through the drifts, and the wildly waving arms of
Mr. B. as he loudly urged them on. THEY MADE IT! THEY MADE IT! Oh!
How thankful I was! My young husband was all right! I scooped the
babies up with a happy shout.
So, you see, that is why it is that those harnesses really
deserve a place of honor. The horses are long gone, but neither my
husband, the memories, nor the harnesses are. They also held out
through the struggle, so they are as much a part of the
accomplishment as the animal and human participants. They will
never be ugly old harnesses to either one of us. So it is we can
also empathize with other people and their memories.
As we sat in that cook car in New Rockford, N.D. (last column) I
could just feel the nostalgia welling up around me. I looked at the
men gathered around the long table. How like the crews I had fed in
my own dining room.
A sign hung near the battered old National cook stove. It read,
‘COMPLAINTS TO THE COOK CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR
HEALTH.’
We visited with an elderly gentleman who was full of stories. I
think his name was Ed. Johnson, 86, and a local resident. He used
to gather cow chips to burn in the cook stove for a cook car of
that day. I did wonder a little about possible odors. We discussed
sod shanties among other things.
About that time I heard one man emphatically say, ‘I wish
they’d stick to the old ways. They were so much better.’
That man was next to having tears in his eyes. So sweet it was to
him. Another soon commented, ‘If you were near the stove you
had to shoo the flies off of every mouthful. That’s why they
used so many raisins. You had to guess what you were
eating.’
We sat across the table from a couple who live in Indiana, Mr.
and Mrs. Joseph McCrum. They were in N. Dakota visiting her
parents. This couple were 85 and 86 respectively. If I got their
name right it was Jensomosback. (And I thought my maiden name,
Tjepkema, was impossible.) The conversation with this foursome
covered many subjects, even straw burners.
After we left the show we drove on and stopped at
Breckenbridge-Wahpeton and stayed overnight at the Del Rio Motel.
In all of our travels we’ve never had the luxury of sleeping in
a Queen Size Bed on a Sealy Posturpedic Mattress. Yes, I pulled
back the covers to see. From cook car to such comfort was
unbelievable. It was such a good bed. Sealy is getting some free
advertising, whoever he is.
So whether you enjoy antiques, or the brand new, life is pretty
terrific, and the Christian can settle down at night and say,
‘All this and heaven too!’ Yes, as the new song says,
‘God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so
good to me.’