FHTV/RV Tell Me A Story - 1

Tell Me A Story is a new series.  They are first hand accounts of people who live in Far Horizon Trailer Village/RV Resort.  There is not rhyme nor reason to theme subject matter.


Has lived in the village over 15 years

Part of my childhood I lived with my grandparents while mom was getting back on her feet.  It was a difficult time and eventually my aunt suggested I come live with her for awhile.  She did not live far away, just up the mountain a bit in a little log cabin. I lived with her for about one year.

That year I learned how to milk cows, churn butter, make cottage cheese, and skim the cream off the top of the raw milk.  I did not like milking the cows at first but I eventually became very good at it.

The most interesting thing I learned was how to keep a dirt floor clean.  Yes, the log cabin did have a dirt floor and once a week we would sprinkle water over it and then sweep it with a broom very lightly. Over time it developed the consistency of cement and then we just had to sweep it every day.  It was as hard as a rock.

I stayed with my aunt for about a year then went back to my grandparents house and worked on the farm.  I was no older than eleven at the time.  Grandpa was a hard task master.  He gave each one of us, my brothers and sisters, a specific job to do during planting and harvesting season, we sort of specialized you might say.  My speciality was digging the holes for the potato spuds and picking and sorting by size the tomatoes.  I did this until I was about 14 or so.

It wasn't too long after that that mom got a job with GE and all of us kids and mom were together.  The boys had grown older and had moved out by then but I did have two younger sisters.  Mom would catch the bus on an old county gravel road early each morning go to work and would not be back until very late.  It was up to me to get the girls up, feed them breakfast and get them off to school and have dinner ready for them when they got home making sure there was enough food for mom.

When I reached the eighth grade I quit school and started cleaning house in the area for fifty cents and hour.  I did this until I got married and I am still cleaning houses it seems, but not for fifty cents and hour.