Growing up on the Farm

Growing up . Having Fun1

When I was six we lived in the “Little House” one mile north of Grandad Langston’s. I was very happy with not going to school, but it was time. School was at Spring Creek, about a mile east of Grandad’s. So it meant walking down through a little pasture, then through the cotton fields. The cotton was taller than my head. That might not have been very tall, but it was very good. It was in the fertile creek bottom and it made a bale to the acre.
I had never been away from our house, never played with other kids. Going to school held no appeal for me. But it wasn’t so bad because Dad was going to take me on a saddle horse. Mom fixed a lunch. Dad left me and I thought he would be there for me at recess. Then if I didn’t like it, we would just go back home and I might go to school some other year. It didn’t work out that way. I loved it at school, but I figured I would just go on back home. But Dad wasn’t there at recess! I didn’t know what to think. I just went back in the schoolhouse and had a good time. Dad was there when school was over and he explained everything to me. I was going to have to go by myself. The next morning he would walk with me to school and be sure I knew the way and then from then I would go by myself. I was a big boy and I only had to walk down to Grandad’s and other kids would walk the rest of the way with me. Pretty quick Henry would start to school and we would walk together. I really liked school and the walk never bothered me again.
The schoolhouse was divided into two sections. Mr. Rushing taught the fifth through seventh on the west side and Mrs. Rushing taught the first through the fourth in the east side. The desks all had ink wells where the older children would use pen and ink. We used round cedar pencils with an eraser on the end and we had “Big Chief” tablets of writing paper. I was by far the smartest kid in my class. On my report card at the end of the year, Mrs. Rushing wrote, “my favorite pupil”. Mom and Dad liked that very much. This started a process that would affect my life. Teachers began promoting me two grades a year. At the time it seemed alright, but the first thing I knew I was a little guy in classes with kids four years older than me. Scholastically it was okay, because I had no trouble making great grades where I was, but of course I was at a disadvantage in athletics. I didn’t let it worry me and just kept on learning. I was the oldest child in our family and my family was proud of me and I was proud of my achievements. I really liked to read. We had the Bobbs-Merrell Readers. At home in the “Little House” we had kerosene lamps to read by. Once we got a reflector for the back of the globe and it made more light. Grandad Langston had a carbide lighting system. I was fascinated by it. I knew we couldn’t afford one of them.
Out south of the main house was a small building that we called the “bunk house”. There was a huge mulberry tree right at the front door After we four brothers had gotten a little age on us, we were delighted to have a place like his to sleep in. We slept on the floor. Each one of us had our own area. I can’t remember the mattresses, but I think one of us would have a feather bed; another would have a mattress made out of straw. We would have our saddles and bridles there by our beds. We might have our 22 caliber rifles or shotguns nearby.
We had quilts for cover. Mom made them. She “tacked” them. This was not made for the fastidious, but it suited us fine.
I don’t think we had sheets very much. We wore overalls most of the time. We thought they lasted longer and they weren’t washed very often. We enjoyed having neighbor boys over for the night and Mom and Dad were comfortable with them. We always had work to do and the neighbor boys would pitch in and help out. They didn’t have things like us to work at.
On the farm in the summer when the crops were “laid by”, sometimes there were days when there was nothing to do. (There always was.) But we always managed to mess it up. A little idleness and we would have a fight. When we did, Dad would send us to the creek to cut wood. Sometimes we would have a stack of wood taller than our house. He was easy on us; he liked us to have fun. He was very generous with us. But he sure got a lot of work out of us.
I can’t believe how he let me get by things. In about 1939, he had bought a beautiful 1937 Chevrolet. It was a very good family car. But one of the Lewallen boys had a Sunday Oklahoman paper route and he talked me nto taking it over. I just assumed I could take the family car on Sunday. I had the route for a year or so and I know that it took its toll on the car. Not many dads would have stood for that deal.
The long period when school was out in the summertime was unique. We forgot everything we had learned, but we started out on something new each term. Sometimes we had 4-H club meetings while school was out. One time we were there for a 4H meeting. Two or three of us were in the schoolyard throwing rocks for fun. One of mine sailed and curved upward. It hit a window and broke it. I don’t know how the principal or janitor found about it, but I know I was supposed to pay 37 cents or 75 cents. This was an amount that was simply impossible for me. I sure hated to tell my dad about it, but I did. He wasn’t fazed. He gave it to me and I presented it to the principal at the next meeting.
Distances were much longer in those days. We organized baseball teams and played other teams. We were allowed to hook up a team of horses to a wagon. We would travel about ten miles. A time I remember is when we drove over to about the Basler place and played boys from the Voyles, Bashara, Kindred and Stacy families. I played with all of them at school. I was manager of our team. I can’t remember who won. Those guys were good ballplayers. This day I was pretty hard on my team. When they made an error I would pull them. They got fed up with this and mutinied on me. They said some pretty mean things about me and to me. I felt pretty bad about this. I didn’t do that any more!

One of our greatest fun things happened on Sunday afternoons. We would play “hide and seek” on horseback. We probably had 100 acres to play in, with a creek (Worley Creek) running through it. There would be me and Henry and possibly Ruble, but he was pretty little for this. I had my bay mare (Pet?) and later “Paint”. The neat thing happened when the guy who was “it” found us. We had a real horserace back to base.