What defines us is:
1. Where we were raised
2. The family values
3. The friends we have
4. The decisions we make
5. The life we lead
I think many times we hear our circumstance make us but I believe it is more about the decisions we make weather they are good or bad. I can not be more proud of the family I have and the WIFE I chose. At least I think I chose her but girls can sometimes make men think they are smarter than they are. I should also state they can make you feel dumber than you are.
It is obvious that growing up in the Tall Grass Country of Osage County impacted me greatly. I have always been amazed when people suggest that there is nothing to do in small towns especially when you live four miles out of town, one north and three west and the town has 36 folks. I think I could still name everyone of them. If I thought I did not have anything to do Mom and Dad had a list a mile long. Mom use to say she had 40-11 things to do. I don't know how many that is but it sounded like a lot.
Well let me tell you what kept me busy after feeding or checking the cattle, chickens and hogs and praise to God that we got rid of that dairy. We did have to milk the cow for most of the years to supply milk to the house, dogs, cats and even the hogs. In the winter feeding the cattle was critical and if there was much cold weather you had to take an ax and chop ice on the ponds and creeks in every pasture. Feeding was taking hay and cattle cake (it is not like birthday cake) to every pasture and honking the horn to get the cattle coming to where you wanted to feed them. Now when I was too young to drive according to the law it was a lot of fun because I got to drive the pickup everyday to feed the cattle. During the summer, spring and fall you spent your time putting up hay and checking the fences and farming crops to get ready for the winter.
About as soon as you got done feeding everything it was time for a little breakfast and getting ready for school. My favorite was Post Toasties but most of the time Mom made eggs, bacon or sausage and toast and sometimes pancakes. Everyday we had breakfast and we were not overweight. In fact we ate meat at every meal and lots of green beans and corn. And since all science says those things will kill you I guess that means Dad would have lived longer, he died at 87. Oh ya, and Mom is 83 and very healthy but a little sassy.
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| Mom always took care of us, me-MOM-Debbie |
Sometime I am going to tell you about school but today is the routine at the farm. I never disliked school and in fact loved it.
Anyway, after school we rode the bus home and we had chores to do or most of the time I went to where Dad was working and helped him. Dad was an unusually hard worker and he not only farmed and ranched but we leased several hundred acres of land from Aunt Helen (another wonderful person and not my real aunt but another story) and he carried the mail for Grainola all up and down the creek. He traveled those back roads everyday from John and Linda Murphy's house north to Dutch Cooper's house south. Everyone knew dad and Christmas was always fun because folks would leave things in their mail box for Dad. One thing I know is that Dad would check on older folks and hand deliver the mail if they needed it. Dad carried the mail six days a week from about 8:00 to 10:45 then he would hurry home to go to his second job, building houses, barns and remodels. I spent virtually everyday after school, until sports in Shidler, building barns, houses or doing remodels. It is really cool today to go back and see what we built.
A couple of weeks ago I went by Soup and Letha Wade's old house in Shidler where dad and I built a large addition to their house and then Don Cassleman's house where we built a huge room. Don's wife Mrs. Cassleman was my 1st and 2nd grade teacher, again that is part of another story. Almost every pole barn around Dad and I built including the Perry Stephen's barn, Jim Olsen's barn, Bud Frank's barn, Vea Harris Barn and more. I cannot tell you how many times I hit my finger with that hammer but it got blooded a lot. I think the moral to this story is always do something you can be proud of by doing it right and treating folks the way you want to be treated. I think that was Dad and Mom's motto not by words but by the way they lived.
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| DAD - Cliff Olson |
Thanks for spending time,
Gary
glolson21@gmail.com
http://thepioneerman.blogspot.com
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