The master plan for the neophyte farmers was to raise chickens like Major Karl's (White Leghorns) and harvest their eggs to sell to a middle-man marketer with whom Major would connect them. A couple of milk cows would graze in the six-acre pasture and the pig pen would be home for a couple of oinkers preparing for their date with the hired bacon and sausage maker.
Major Karl supervised construction of a large chicken house with salvage lumber from a small shut- down saw mill he knew about. He hired a couple of workers to assist him and the chicken house started to take shape. One day Eunice took the children into town for some ice cream treats while she shopped for a couple of items. It would be the family's last connection to anything related to fun for the next few months. On their return as they approached the house they saw the terrible sight of a smoking pile of black embers surrounded by the concrete foundation that now etched the outline of what had once been their home. The shock of shattered lives was dealt with by John's and Eunice's concern for their children. Hard times. Hard times.
The chicken house construction crew had spotted smoke coming out of the roof and rushed up to the house to find the entire top of the structure in flames. They managed to get Eunice's upright piano and a sectional book case out of the house before it collapsed. Faulty wiring was blamed for the fire.
How John and Eunice managed to find money for insurance premiums in those Depression years is amazing but they did. And like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of its predecessor, a grand new, three bedroom house with indoor plumbing (goodbye outdoor privy) and a kitchen with a breakfast-nook appeared a few months later.
So we have a glorious happy ending, right? Uh, not exactly.
(To be continued)
1 comment:
I remember Uncle Major telling Mother that the small bull calf we bought would be ready for butchering when his top teeth came in and NOT to let "the children" make a pet of him. All of us checked daily to see when his top teeth came in. Uncle Major did not tell us that cows and bulls did not have top teeth, only bottom ones and he ket an eye on the calf so when it was ready to butcher he told us the truth, A lesson none of us forgot.
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