I was engaged in conversation today with another “prairie” person. Yep, those strange folks who actually enjoy the drive through Iowa and Nebraska on I-80, admiring the flat terrain: prairie to you hill-bound folk.
We got on the subject of summer activities and it reminded me of the summers I spent with my grandparents during the late August days of summer.
My mom had three sisters and one brother. My grandparents had downsized their farm, keeping about 15 acres for their use. Most every spring, we would go to Harvard, Nebraska and help with planting of corn, and various vegetables. In August, all of us would return to help can, freeze vegetables and dress chickens that we all took home to get through the winter.
In all, there were about 11 cousins as well as my mom’s sisters and brother and their spouses. We would generally all spend about as much time talking and goofing off as we did work. As kids, it was the job of most of us to wreak havoc with several of the adults: my Uncles Max and Chuck mostly. They are still talking about the great bottle rocket chase in the outhouse and my Uncle Chuck but that’s another story…..
One of my favorite things to do was to go out in the cornfields before the corn was picked and just sit in one of the rows and listen to the corn grow. For those of you who doubt this is possible, I can tell you that you can. Anybody worth their salt from Nebraska or Iowa will confirm this. You could listen to the wind rustle through the corn plants, look up at the blue sky and just drift off to some distant place. It didn’t matter how hot it was, down toward the damp ground you would find a cool breeze.
I somehow managed never to get lost in there either…can’t say the same for some of my other cousins. You can also ask my sister Sue why to this day, she isn’t fond of chickens after she watched my grandmother wring a few necks…literally (chickens that is). We always tried very had not to anger Grandma after witnessing that…..(joking).
Anyway, thanks for indulging me in a bit of daydreaming. I feel bad that my kids won’t get to experience those types of late summer adventures. The good part is that they can talk about the trips to the lake and a bit of late summer fishing. Maybe I’ll read a blog someday by one of them feeling a bit nostalgic for those days as well.