Monday, March 22, 2004
MASS MOVE TO MISSOURI
The move to Missouri was memorable. Dad sold our Ford Sedan and sold his half of the plumbing equipment to his brother, Emil. Only the priority things were loaded on the truck……all except one. My mother let dad talk her out of most things but not her piano.
Dad bought a ton-and-a-half Ford truck with a flat-bed on the back. Everything was loaded and a canvas was used to cover the top and sides. An opening much like the entrance to a tent closed the rear. Louis and Sophus each had a chair to sit on in a little area. The month of May was cool yet so they wore their coats and I’m sure were very uncomfortable.
Missouri was much further away in 1945. The roads weren’t that good and the highway ran through each town between Nebraska and Missouri. We crossed the Missouri River from Omaha to Council Bluffs and then proceeded south and east to Red Oak, Iowa continuing in an east and south direction to Clarinda, Iowa. Dad took Hwy 71 from there due south until Joplin, Missouri. After reaching Joplin it was just due east until we reached Cabool. From there it was eighteen miles to Tyrone.
There are no words to describe the place. The barn was beautiful but the unpainted buildings that were to be our house and chicken house were pretty dismal. Imagine a tin roof, big slab boards grayed from the weather, bigger slabs that had bowed were the small porch and a solid piece of wood roughly cut from a tree was the step. The building had been empty for some time and was in total disarray inside. Holes in the floor showed dirt underneath, cobwebs and gross neglect every where.
Mom must have wilted when she walked in. Of course she had seen it before but coming back to make it livable had to take a lot of determination. Dad, of course, was concerned about fences and getting the barn ready for animals so it was pretty well up to mom and me to make a home out of nothing. Louis and Sophus were needed by dad to work outside. The first order was to go to Houston and buy a cook stove. It was a nice white enamel wood stove which would suit mom’s purpose. They bought a couch and chair and a heating stove for the living room. With the kitchen table and chairs we all had a place to sit.
Our closest neighbors were the Aldridge family and they came to call shortly after we moved in. They were friendly and had a lot of children. The three oldest were married and gone but they still had three girls and a boy at home. None of them went beyond Tyrone to school. There were two options for high school. School buses ran in front of our farm to Summersville and Cabool both. For some reason I decided to go to Summersville and Louis opted to go to Cabool. School mornings were a rush just like they are today. We had to be down at the road to be picked up and some mornings we would one or the other have to run to make it.
School at Summersville was enough for me the first couple of years. I rode the bus 17 miles going and coming from school. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking on the way. Rough hills with jutting rocks and raging creeks over the bank after heavy rains, green trees everywhere. Hardly any land was cleared back then and the area in Southern Missouri was relatively untouched. Most of the roads were gravel until you got to a US HWY…….even at my age I knew it was a treasure.
I made friends at Summersville and became very interested in basket-ball…..the schools main sport event. The student body was too small to gain State finances for foot-ball and the only sport girls engaged in was volley ball but only at Phys. Ed. time. I took mostly business courses and classes that would enable me to be able to teach school after graduation. One of those classes was General Agriculture which would be important to teach in the rural area.
The summer of my freshman year dad, Louis and Sophus worked around the area putting up hay. Greg Aldridge knew of farmers that wanted their hay cut and bailed so they worked together with the bailer’s. Dad took pay both in hay and cash. We had three cows that were going to have calves and with the team of horses the hay was as good as money to Dad.
One time uncle Alfred and Nettie came down from Nebraska to visit. Mom and dad wanted to show them the Shepherd of the Hills area and other points of interest. Since they would be gone until late that evening dad had Louis take the truck to help with the hay in his absence. Sophus went to help Louis and I was home alone. By lunch time the sky was blowing up some dark clouds that looked stormy. All of a sudden I saw Louis coming up the lane with a truck load of hay. He was driving faster than usual so I knew he had seen the clouds as I had. He backed into the barn and began throwing bales up in the haymow. He told me to get the hay hook and drag them back while he and Sophus unloaded as fast as they could.
When they had all the hay unloaded they went back as fast as they could. He made several more trips and we managed to get the hay safely in before the fury of the storm hit. Louis and Sophus came up in the haymow with me and stacked them all in order, leaving breathing room for the fresh cut hay.
Later that night as mom and dad neared home with uncle Alfred and Nettie, they could see there had been a bad rain storm. Dad was worried about the hay but when he came in and we told him it was all in the barn he was greatly relieved. I think that is the first time we had ever done something together that evoked praise from dad. In our generation we were rarely braged on by our parents…..not that they didn’t love us but mainly because………that’s just the way it was….Louis, Sophus and I went to bed that night feeling good about ourselves……..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
Dad bought a ton-and-a-half Ford truck with a flat-bed on the back. Everything was loaded and a canvas was used to cover the top and sides. An opening much like the entrance to a tent closed the rear. Louis and Sophus each had a chair to sit on in a little area. The month of May was cool yet so they wore their coats and I’m sure were very uncomfortable.
Missouri was much further away in 1945. The roads weren’t that good and the highway ran through each town between Nebraska and Missouri. We crossed the Missouri River from Omaha to Council Bluffs and then proceeded south and east to Red Oak, Iowa continuing in an east and south direction to Clarinda, Iowa. Dad took Hwy 71 from there due south until Joplin, Missouri. After reaching Joplin it was just due east until we reached Cabool. From there it was eighteen miles to Tyrone.
There are no words to describe the place. The barn was beautiful but the unpainted buildings that were to be our house and chicken house were pretty dismal. Imagine a tin roof, big slab boards grayed from the weather, bigger slabs that had bowed were the small porch and a solid piece of wood roughly cut from a tree was the step. The building had been empty for some time and was in total disarray inside. Holes in the floor showed dirt underneath, cobwebs and gross neglect every where.
Mom must have wilted when she walked in. Of course she had seen it before but coming back to make it livable had to take a lot of determination. Dad, of course, was concerned about fences and getting the barn ready for animals so it was pretty well up to mom and me to make a home out of nothing. Louis and Sophus were needed by dad to work outside. The first order was to go to Houston and buy a cook stove. It was a nice white enamel wood stove which would suit mom’s purpose. They bought a couch and chair and a heating stove for the living room. With the kitchen table and chairs we all had a place to sit.
Our closest neighbors were the Aldridge family and they came to call shortly after we moved in. They were friendly and had a lot of children. The three oldest were married and gone but they still had three girls and a boy at home. None of them went beyond Tyrone to school. There were two options for high school. School buses ran in front of our farm to Summersville and Cabool both. For some reason I decided to go to Summersville and Louis opted to go to Cabool. School mornings were a rush just like they are today. We had to be down at the road to be picked up and some mornings we would one or the other have to run to make it.
School at Summersville was enough for me the first couple of years. I rode the bus 17 miles going and coming from school. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking on the way. Rough hills with jutting rocks and raging creeks over the bank after heavy rains, green trees everywhere. Hardly any land was cleared back then and the area in Southern Missouri was relatively untouched. Most of the roads were gravel until you got to a US HWY…….even at my age I knew it was a treasure.
I made friends at Summersville and became very interested in basket-ball…..the schools main sport event. The student body was too small to gain State finances for foot-ball and the only sport girls engaged in was volley ball but only at Phys. Ed. time. I took mostly business courses and classes that would enable me to be able to teach school after graduation. One of those classes was General Agriculture which would be important to teach in the rural area.
The summer of my freshman year dad, Louis and Sophus worked around the area putting up hay. Greg Aldridge knew of farmers that wanted their hay cut and bailed so they worked together with the bailer’s. Dad took pay both in hay and cash. We had three cows that were going to have calves and with the team of horses the hay was as good as money to Dad.
One time uncle Alfred and Nettie came down from Nebraska to visit. Mom and dad wanted to show them the Shepherd of the Hills area and other points of interest. Since they would be gone until late that evening dad had Louis take the truck to help with the hay in his absence. Sophus went to help Louis and I was home alone. By lunch time the sky was blowing up some dark clouds that looked stormy. All of a sudden I saw Louis coming up the lane with a truck load of hay. He was driving faster than usual so I knew he had seen the clouds as I had. He backed into the barn and began throwing bales up in the haymow. He told me to get the hay hook and drag them back while he and Sophus unloaded as fast as they could.
When they had all the hay unloaded they went back as fast as they could. He made several more trips and we managed to get the hay safely in before the fury of the storm hit. Louis and Sophus came up in the haymow with me and stacked them all in order, leaving breathing room for the fresh cut hay.
Later that night as mom and dad neared home with uncle Alfred and Nettie, they could see there had been a bad rain storm. Dad was worried about the hay but when he came in and we told him it was all in the barn he was greatly relieved. I think that is the first time we had ever done something together that evoked praise from dad. In our generation we were rarely braged on by our parents…..not that they didn’t love us but mainly because………that’s just the way it was….Louis, Sophus and I went to bed that night feeling good about ourselves……..
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
