“So what sort of things did you do to have fun when you were a girl, Gran? You said that you didn’t have many toys. I know that you had lots of chores to keep you busy, but what did you do when you had time to play?”
“I was a real tomboy as a youngster. I remember as a young gal while I was growing up my poor mother being flabbergasted at some of the antics I would get up to. She would always tell me to act like a young lady, not a tomboy. That was kind of hard for me since my closest playmates were all boys. Eva was my youngest sister, and she was four years my senior. Once she got into her teen years, she had no interest in playing dolls and such with me, so off I’d go and tag along with Newt, Milt, and Malcy. They were always up to something fun.
Because our farm property ran out to a small lake, we spent a lot of our spare time down there having fun. In the summer we would go swimming and fishing. Sometimes we would just explore the shore lines looking for treasure. In the winter we shoveled off an area to go skating. Ma was always fretting about us drowning or falling through the ice. We were all good swimmers, and it was a rare occasion to go to the lake alone.
I recall one summer when I was about nine the four of us built a raft down at the lake. We spent days working on it. We collected dried maple poles and tied them together with old binder twine. We built it right at the shore so we wouldn’t have to lug it very far to get it into the water. We were all proud as punch when the time came to launch it. That raft sure did float. It was kind of tipsy if we all stood on one side while diving off, but otherwise it was pretty stable.
The four of us spent hours on that old raft. We got a couple of flat boards Pa had lying around, and Newt carved them into paddles. They were pretty crude looking, but they did the job just the same. We paddled around the lake to go fishing, or we’d paddle across the lake to explore on the other side. On the hot days we just took turns jumping off to get cool. Sometimes the neighbour children would come with us. We sure did have a lot of good times.
I really loved fishing at that age. I recall a time when Ma had sent me out to dig some potatoes for supper. I not only dug potatoes, but I also dug some fine looking worms in the process. I was in such a hurry to get those worms on a fishing hook that I left the basket of potatoes at the garden. Well, I guess Ma got to wondering why I hadn’t brought those potatoes in so she could cook them for supper. She sent Dawn out looking for me. Dawn found the basket of potatoes and took them in to Ma. Then she was sent back out to find me. I had taken those worms down to the lake and gone fishing out on our raft. I had a nice catch of pickerel by the time Dawn caught up with me. She wasn’t in a good humour by then, and she told me Ma was going to skin me alive.
Well, I surely did get a good tongue lashing for that. Ma gave me one of her speeches about being a young lady. She said she couldn’t understand why a girl would want to pick up old dew worms, never mind go fishing. She expected me to complete my chores before going traipsing off, not telling anyone my whereabouts. That was fair enough and a lesson learned, but I have to say that fine catch of pickerel was fried up for lunch the next day. Pa gave me a wink as he was praising Ma for cooking such a tasty meal.
Another thing the boys and I spent a lot of time doing was building tree forts. We seemed to be constantly adding to one or tearing it down to make a new one. We chopped down small trees for poles with an old axe. Then we’d fasten them to trees with twine, wire, or nails. Just whatever we could get our hands on. We were always scavenging for something. One of the best forts we made was three stories high.
Once we got the fort made, we’d play “Cowboys and Indians”. I liked being an Indian. We had homemade bows and arrows and sling shots that Pa had made for the boys. I got real good at using a slingshot. I actually even killed a few partridge with it. That didn’t get me into trouble, but a couple of times I managed to hit one of the other children during one of our “attack” sessions. I pled for forgiveness, stating that I didn’t ever think I was such a good shot, nor had I been aiming at them. That never got me off, though, and a few times I got a good lickin.
Another thing we enjoyed doing to entertain ourselves was playing in the barn, up in the haymow. Back then there weren’t any balers, so all the hay was piled in the barn loose. We would climb up onto the high beams, then jump down into the hay. Sometimes we would bury into the mounds of hay and make tunnels. That was a lot of fun. Ma used to give us the dickens though if we got too much hay stuck to our clothes. It was hard to wash out. She especially hated it if my hair got all tangled full of hay. There was no compassion in her strokes when she was trying to brush it out of my waist-length long hair. She’d chirp away at me the whole time, telling me I should act more like a girl.
It was a tough job for me to try to be a young lady in those times. The boys and Pa seemed to be doing things that really interested me. I loved traipsing after Pa when he’d go hunting. Most men hunted back then. There were no real season for the hunt, as I recall. Lots of people just had to hunt wild game to survive. Pa enjoyed hunting, and every once in a while off he’d go. Game was plentiful in those days. There wasn’t as much human pressure on the forest creatures like today. We often saw moose and deer in our hay fields, but Pa preferred to go to the bush to hunt. I think he just liked getting away from the everyday routine and enjoyed the peacefulness of the bush. He had a huge appreciation for Mother Nature.
Pa taught me a lot about looking for signs and tracking. He would point out all sorts of different things as we went along. It was always an education of nature as we walked through the woods. He taught me how to handle a gun, and even let me shoot a few deer and partridge. He always told me not to tell Ma. He said that she would skin both of us alive.
Pa showed me how to skin and clean an animal once it was killed. He always reinforced the fact that we needed to take care of the meat properly. He never wanted to be wasteful. Every edible piece of meat was saved. He would say we had to take what Mother Nature gave us, and not just take from nature. I had to help Pa pack the meat out or help him drag it home. That was part of the hunt, too, Pa used to say. Anyway, those hunting lessons proved to be valuable to me in my later years. Ma never said very much about me going as she thought I was just keeping Pa company, and she didn’t like him going into the bush alone.
Another thing I liked to do in my tomboy years was fetch the cattle. During the cold winter months, when there was three feet of snow on the ground, all the livestock were kept in the barn and fed hay and grain, but when spring came back around, and the grass was long enough to provide good nourishment, the cattle were allowed to roam and graze freely. No one had fences much to speak of back in those times, so the cattle would be let out after the morning milking, and they would wander off in search of fresh grass and browsed all day. A couple of the cows had bells fastened around their necks with a leather strap so we’d hear them when we went to round them up.
The cows tended to stick to the same areas. After a while they would have trails packed down through the bush and around the outskirts of the fields and meadows. Of course, they always wandered back to the lake to get water during some point in the day. In the heat of the summer that is where we usually found them. They’d be lying under the stand of maples near our swimming hole, chewing their cud, and enjoying the cool breeze.
Pa would send a couple of us youngsters off to go and fetch the cows so he could get the milking done. We only had five or six head in those times to milk, and maybe a few young heifers. The calves were kept in the barn to encourage their mothers to come home to nurse them. There were even times when the cows came home on their own waiting to do just that.
When I got old enough, I think I was about six or so, I liked to tag along with Newt or Dalt when they went to get the cows. I always found something of interest to amuse me along our travels. In the spring there would be wildflowers to pick or a partridge brood to see. We came across a doe and her new spotted fawns several times, and saw moose with their calves. On one occasion, we ran into an old sow bear and her three cubs. I was scared, but Newt grabbed my hand and we just backed up slowly and gave them some distance, then skirted out and around them. The boys always carried an old single shot .22 with them in case they had trouble, but we didn’t need to make use of it on that occasion.
Sometimes our chore of finding the cows took us farther afield than we’d planned. Like I said, there were no fences much, and the cattle didn’t know our property lines, so sometimes our travels would lead us as far as Uncle Seth’s or other neighbours’. Sometimes the neighbour’s cows would be over visiting with ours. We had to separate them to bring ours home. That proved to be a tussle at times. Seems cows like to have friends, too.
The one thing that sticks out in my memories most about these excursions is the fact that we were always in bare feet. We had a limited amount of footwear, and us youngsters ran around all summer with no shoes. On the cool frosty mornings in the autumn, you can imagine how cold our feet got traipsing through the bush and long grass to fetch those cows. In order to warm our toes, we would stand for a few minutes in the fresh cow patties.”
“That’s gross, Gran. I can’t believe you intentionally stepped in fresh cow poop,” said Beth. “Yuck!”
“Well, it worked real fine and most of the manure would be gone from our feet by the time we made it back to the house. We took care of the rest by rinsing our feet off with water from the rain barrels. Ma used to just shake her head and say, “For God’s sake, clean those feet before dirtifacation sets in.” As a youngster, I thought that that was a real disease caused from exposure to manure. Anyway, she wasn’t real keen on this practice, but we did what worked.
I must say that in the end, Ma did prevail. She managed to teach me how to sew, do needle work, knit, bake, and cook. It took some doing to try and keep my interest in it, but in the end, I did learn all the required skills needed to be a girl. I’m not so sure that I ever was a real young lady, but my Ma was happy with my efforts. Years later, when I was married and had my own home to keep, I was glad Ma had persevered. She had taught me the many skills that I needed to make a house a home and keep it going.”