As I was growing up I was always aware of my Dad and his authority, for he was the authority in our home. He did everything Mom authorized him to do. But he was a leader, not a follower.
Dad was the bread winner in our family, he was never afraid of hard work which was a very good thing because in our part of the world there weren’t any jobs that didn’t require diligent effort to make a weeks pay. Dad’s first job, after his marriage to Mom, was a farmhand for Jim Rogers a man that had a farm and money but no farm experience. Jim was a West Point graduate and had served as an officer in the U.S. Army but didn’t know how to farm so he hired Dad to fill in his gap, which Dad did very well, by drawing on his experience working on farms as he grew up.
A farmer’s life is a very tough demanding job requiring one to work almost 24/7. On the farm Sundays were started the same as every other day of the week. At 5 AM it was up and to the barn to tend and milk, the cows, but then the rest of the day the schedule varied from the other days, in that we went to Sunday School and Church followed by possible trip to my grandparents home for a Sunday fried chicken dinner or we stayed at home for a fried chicken dinner, after which we spent what was left of the afternoon to visit with relatives until time for the evening milking of the cows.
Along the way Dad’s responsibilities grew as my sister Rhoda came along and an opportunity at the Harvison-Walker Brickyard came along and so we picked up our meager belongings and moved into a huge farmhouse that was part of a nonoperating farm. Even though Dad didn’t farm this place it gave him an opportunity to plant a very large garden and to raise some chickens. I was now almost six years old and was required to hoe weeds in the garden, help to harvest the vegetables and I had the responsibility of feeding and watering the chickens. Dad’s job at the brickyard required him to lift a lot of weight and work in a very hot environment for long hours. Our living had improved because Dad now had two days off from his job (which meant that Saturdays were available to work in the garden and mow the lawn and Sunday was almost a complete day of rest). I still had to take care of the chickens but Dad didn’t have to milk the cows. Our Sunday regimen remained the same as always.
Our family had now grown by the addition of my brothers Nelson and Gary and once more our requirements had increased and another opportunity for Dad came along at the American Viscose Corporation in Lewistown, Pa.. This precipitated another move, but this time it was not to a farm, but to a house and a building that served as a garage and a chicken house and enough room for a fair sized garden. We spent about six years at this location while Dad accumulated enough money to buy a rundown farm that really didn’t have any serviceable buildings, but the price was right and there was a good stand of timber on the mountain land. Dad saw this place for the great opportunities it offered. So besides his job, he started to farm the land, cut enough timber to build a house and some farm buildings. We did this with the aid of a horse that Dad bought rather cheap because she was blind in one eye. The mares name was Tops and she worked hard to snake logs out of the woods, plow the fields, and pull a drag across the field while we picked up rocks to prepare for planting.
We built our house, a stable, a pig pen and converted a part of the original farm house that was in a very bad state of disrepair into a chicken house and granary.
Fordson tractor
Originally uploaded by Buddy Stone.
Dad owned three tractors in all. The first was
the Fordson and then there was an orange
Farmall F12 with high steel wheels in the
rear and a single rubber tired wheel on
the front and then came the Ford 8N pictured
here.
We always had a garden and now we had room to raise some hogs and chickens and this all translated into a lot of work. The garden now expanded to include a large strawberry patch and a very large potato patch. Tops was no longer able to pull her load so she was replaced by a steel wheeled Fordson tractor which Dad had to rebuild before it could even be brought home. Since Tops no longer used up space in the stable Dad had built, we now had room for a steer. The steer came in the form of a calf that still required feeding by a bottle of formula and this was added to my responsibilities.
During all this time Sunday was still always the day when we went to Sunday School and Church and then to Grandma’s place for a fried chicken dinner.
Are you getting the picture? My Dad always took advantage of his talents and resources to the fullest extent. Even though we never had much money we never felt poor, because life was rich.
Through my high school years Dad took on extra jobs remodeling rooms, painting houses and barns and I was always expected to work with him. At first I was mostly just an assistant, but as time went by I was learning to also do the more skilled work. As I got into my teens I branched out and worked on neighboring farms, usually evenings after school and Saturdays although one summer I took room and board on Eugene Kinsel’s farm. I had every Sunday off and Dad picked me up at the farm on Saturday night after the milking was done so I could go home.Sunday was spent as usual going to Sunday School and Church and a trip to Grandma’s place for a fried chicken dinner.
By the time I made it through high school I really didn’t know what I wanted in life but I knew that I didn’t want anything more to do with school, and I knew that public school was free and you had to pay for college and I knew Dad didn’t have any more money than what we had to live on so college was out. Jobs in our area were non-existent so I signed up for the U.S. Navy.
While I was in the Navy things eased up for Dad so life sort took a little turn for him. He was able to devote more time to the church and joined the Lion’s Club International and was very proud of the services that they did both worldwide and in the local community, he also did volunteer work at the local fire house by manning the phone for the Emergency Rescue Service, this was before 911 came to town. If you wanted to see Dad at 9:15 AM. Sunday mornings he was always at the church greeting incoming worshipers.
Wanda and I were married while I was in the Navy and when I got discharged we had no place to go except home to Mom and Dad with no prospects for a job or any money, but Dad came through with a little pull, he was now a foreman at the American Viscose Corporation and knew that they were hiring a few workers and arranged for me to sign up and I got a job which lasted a couple of years until I was laid off due to a lack of work at the mill. After looking for work for a couple of month’s, Wanda and I went to her Aunt Marjorie’s place in Florida to try to find work there. To make the story short,we were there a month and no luck on work so it was back to McVeytown, Pa. With no prospects. I really felt a need to help supplement Dad’s income but didn’t know how I could contribute, but resourceful Dad came up with an idea. He had a lot of Jack Pine trees that could be cut for pulpwood and the price was up. So I learned how to man a chainsaw. The month of March that year was the longest winter month of my life, but April came and as Dad was coming home from work at AMC one evening he stopped at a lumberyard that was owned by Cloyd J. Traill who needed some help in his one-man business so Dad told him I would be in to see him the next day. So that became my next job.
After working at the Cloyd J. Traill Lumberyard for a couple of years and Wanda getting a job as an LPN at a the Lewistown Hospital we wanted to get a home of our own. I approached Dad with this idea to see if there was a way. For some reason, he said yes, but it was going to be work. He sold me a half acre lot on the corner of his property and we built the house. We cut all the framing lumber from the stand of timber on the mountain but built all the outside walls with cement blocks, Dad, his brother Jesse and I worked together on the house until it was weathered in and then it was pretty much up to me to finish the inside but Dad still helped a lot by building the cabinets. With a Dad like this a person has struggle twice as hard if you want to be half as resourceful as he.
In 1976 the plant where Dad worked (Now owned by FMC) closed down when the Juniata River overflowed and flooded the mill. This would seem devastating to most people, but to Dad it turned out to be a very good thing as he then got a job as a master carpenter with Allensville Planning Mill and he was now doing work that suited him much better than being a supervisor for FMC. He was held in high esteem by his new employer and they had better benefits and working environment than on his previous job.
Many years later after My Mom had died I was visiting with Dad and he related an event that happened to him. He said that he had been watching TV and nodded off to sleep and was awoken with a jar and on the news program that was on at the time they were telling about the massacre at the Columbine High School in Colorado and they told of the girl who told the assassin “Yes, I believe in God!” This gave him an idea, he said he had just prayed to God and asked him what to do and God provided him the answer. He ordered 500 button pins with Yes, I believe in God on them and started passing them out to friends. He later ordered a 1000 more and passed them out.
Everybody was a friend to Dad and he was a friend to everybody. I never heard him use a cussword stronger than goshdarn and I never heard him say a disparaging word about anyone.
The month of January 2004, I spent with Dad and he told me at that time he was ready to go with Mom in Heaven (She had died in 1997), He lived on this earth until September 25, 2006, and now he lives on in all the lives he touched.
Amen