Memories of Long Ago Part 3 of 3

One of the reasons Mom and Dad moved to the asparagus acreage was the chance to supplement Dad’s telephone company salary by selling asparagus and berries to the local stores as well as the surplus produce from the vegetable garden. With the addition of the bee hives, honey was added to the list of things the family could sell along with chickens and eggs. It was an ideal situation since the chores were not overly labor intensive and we children pitched in and helped according to our ages. We raised our own vegetables, had a cow for milk and raised several pigs for our own home grown hams and bacon.

Grandma and Grandpa A came from Kentucky and while they were with us, Grandpa helped with the chores and Grandma helped Mom with the canning. Adeline and I were expected to help with all the chores as were the older boys. We washed canning jars and were generally available when called upon. When tomatoes and peaches were canned, they were first put in a big galvanized tub and covered with hot water so the skins would slide off. Adeline and I helped pick them out of the water and remove the skins then toss them into a tub of cold water. A lot of the canning was done by pressure cooker. Large crocks of sauerkraut stored in the cellar lasted the winter.

As the depression deepened, families struggled to get by. At one point, Dad and several of Mom’s older brothers joined together to buy and sell coal. Dad bought a stake truck and my uncles did the driving. During the winter they would buy loads of coal from mines in Missouri and bring it to our house in northern Iowa to sell to the local farmers. They often got orders and as soon as one load was delivered they would immediately return to Missouri for another load. In the spring instead of coal, they hauled fence posts. As soon as the truck arrived at our house, the men would get on the phone to farmers in the area and often sold the load on the first phone call.

I liked school. My favorite subjects were English and Biology. I often thought of becoming a Biology teacher, but I assumed my fear of snakes would prevent me. I barely scrapped by in Latin and Math. I sang alto in Glee Club. In the Journalism club I worked on the school newspaper. I was a baton twirler in marching band and had a part time job in one of the dime stores in town. I was not allowed to date until after I graduated from high school. Adeline and I went to parties, movies and roller skating. Adeline and I were both girl scouts and went to one summer camp for a month, and another year went to camp for two weeks. I thought of being a nurse, but money was scarce and going to nursing school seemed out of the question.

The depression affected everything in our lives and was to blame for the banks being closed, empty store fronts on the street and the piles of oranges in California being burnt with petroleum. But the photos of the war in China, the radio spouted news of the Italians warring in Ethiopia, and the Movie Tone news reels showing Russians dying in snow at Stalingrad was a parallel world compared to the asparagus farm, in which my days continued to melt into each other with an endless sameness, and innocence.