I grew up on a farm that has been in my family since the Civil War Era. My parents and my brother and his family still live there. It is 150 acres of mostly woods. There are two large pastures for cattle and two barns, a large cattle barn and a small barn for my brother’s sheep. When I very young my great aunts and my grandparents lived in the big duplex farmhouse -the Farmhouse a big house with small rooms as they weren’t very forward thinking folks and only added on as much space as needed at any given time-and my family lived in a trailer(now called mobile homes) that was parked in the yard–the big huge yard that took hours to mow even with a riding mower. When the old aunts passed away we moved into the house. Some of my favorite childhood activities were riding our ponies , riding bikes,minibikes and motorcycles, exploring the woods with my siblings or with my imaginary friends,sled riding in the lane ( there was an element of danger to this, because if you got going to fast you had to run into the ditch to avoid going out on the highway) more the one bloody nose was seen, but at least no one got hit by a car), building snow forts and swimming. We had a four foot deep above ground pool and a near by river, but mother frowned upon us swimming there, which made it all the more appealing. Of course there was work to do on the farm too. We helped bale hay,even as small children-, helped my dad feed the cows and barn cats every winter night and do various things in his work shop,herd cattle to their summer pasture,grind feed, fixed fence and accompanied my dad to buy coal for the furnace and to take cattle to the butcher.

Joyce Wasser