Her dad acquired a calf, which he and her mother hoped to eventually breed. Dad turned the extra building into a chicken coop. He put his chickens in half of it and in the other half stored cow and chicken feed. The chickens’ corn came in colorful patterned cloth bags, which her mother saved to make pretty dresses for Patty. Her Dad put a wire fence around a pasture for the calf, but every time Patty tried to cut through to explore the woods, the calf or a rooster would chase her.

Her mother saw how much Patty wanted to explore. One day she said, “Patty, do you want to walk back into the woods with me?”

“Yes, Mommy, I want to see what it looks like.”

They walked up a hill. On top the land leveled off.

“See that old wooden fence. We can use those rails for a pretend cabin. Help me move them and we will make walls.”

They could look down and see places far away. Patty slid down it on the leaves in the fall, and in the winter, she and her dad would go sled riding.

In the spring, the current from the creek left behind different shaped and colorful stones, upon which Patty would often watch bright colored lizards crawl. This creek-drained snow water from the hills, and a natural spring nearby would eventually fill a handmade swimming pool with clean fresh water. Dad would eventually remove that lumber and dig a large hole there, in which he would cover with tar and tarpaper. In the summer, Patty learned how to swim in that pool.

The calf eventually grew into a cow. They attempted to breed her with the neighbor’s bull but it would not breed. A big truck came one day and took the cow away. She learned out later on that her dad had it butchered for meat.

Patty could now safely explore the empty fields and woods, for her dad had fenced in the chickens, built a chicken door to the chicken’s yard and built roosts for the chickens. The chickens provided eggs and meat. In the other half of the building, he now stored only corn for the chickens; eventually the rats came and grew extremely large.

That summer Patty rode her tricycle around the house until she had worn a path in the grass.

Her mother then became sick. “Mommy, why are you throwing up?”

“Patty, you are going to have a baby sister or brother before your next birthday.” Patty looked very serious and said nothing. As the months passed by, Patty’s mom kept getting bigger and bigger. Sometimes Mom would let her touch her stomach and Patty could feel the baby kicking. That Christmas, Dad did all the Christmas shopping. On Christmas morning, Patty woke up to find a whole bunch of boy’s toys, a train, trucks, cars, a racer and so on under the tree. Patty played with all the toys and thought they were very magical.

Mom later bought her a doll that looked like a real baby. She said, “Now you will have a baby to take care of, too.”

One morning Mom said, “Look Patty the Easter Bunny bought you a package.” Patty opened large brown envelope and found a pink blanket for her baby doll, and it meant the world to her.

That same spring of 1948 her baby sister was born. Mom and Dad brought her home and laid her on one end of the couch. Patty sat down at the other end and stared at her. All her life she had been the baby. Now her life had suddenly changed. She had to give up her crib and sleep in a regular bed. She now had to share her mother not only with her Dad but also with a baby sister, and that baby sister occupied most of her mother’s time and attention. However, Dad now spent more time with her now. He took her places and even took her up in airplane. While flying, he did loops, which made her stomach feel like it was turning inside out.

Now that she was the big sister, Patty knew that “little things matter”.