#52stories - Week 11 (Mar 15th published late)

Early memories in Fairfield. 1954-1961.

My memories are pretty much distinguished from one another based on where I was living at the time, rather than how old I was. My earliest memories are when we were living in the brick house in Fairfield.  We moved there when I was 2 years old and moved away when I was 9. These memories are snippets more than stories, so I thought a bulleted format would suit them.

• One of my earliest memories that I can tag to a specific age was my 5th birthday.  I remember getting a coloring book that had a black Cocker Spaniel on the front.  I generally had birthday parties every other year, because Kathy Martin and I had the same birthday and we alternated who had the party.  She's a year older than I am.  Whoever hosted the party, blew out the candles first; then we would relight them and the other person would blow them out.
• I remember helping my Dad plant the garden, which was huge.  Specifically, he showed me how to plant corn by taking three steps heel to toe, digging a small hole, depositing three kernels, and covering them with dirt.  If you've never seen corn seed, they're basically dried corn kernels. We bought the seeds from the feed store and they had a white dust on them, which was probably fertilizer.
• We ate tomatoes straight off the vine, sometimes sprinkling them with salt.
• We pasteurized our own milk with a metal machine that was set up in the spring house.  My dad and sister milked the two cows that we had.
• We had a playhouse in the backyard that had an upper level, but wasn't completely finished.  It didn't matter to us.
• We would burn trash in a burn pile behind the play house, not close to the house.  One time, my brother and I were playing around the ashed with sticks and he ended up burning my toe...because of course we were barefoot.  My Dad said to put butter on it, which my brother teased him about later in life.
• When it snowed...and we had deep snows...my Dad would take us with a toboggan that he had made to a high hill behind the barn and we would sleigh ride. The toboggan was big enough for two and was wooden with a metal bottom.  Dad would wrap whoever wasn't riding down in his big thick coat to stay warm.  I think my son has that coat now.
• We had neighbors that were a field away in each direction.  The Goads lived in one direction and the Howards in the other. Eddie Howard was my closest friend while we lived on the farm and we played together frequently.  W.D. Goad and his sister were a little younger than I was, but my brother and I went there many times to play. Here's a picture of us with Eddie Howard, Feb 1958.

• The creek across from the house was good for swimming in the summer and "skating" in the winter.  We skated using rubber boots.  The first time I had the breath knocked out of me was when I fell backward while skating.  It was scary to realize that you weren't breathing.  After the first time, it wasn't so scary.
• We explored the woods that were on the other side of the creek.  
• We picked and ate paw paws from a tree that grew in the woods, as well as raspberries, blackberries, and currants.  I found the following picture online at http://www.hartapiaries.com/Pawpaws.htm.  This is exactly how I remember them. 

• We grew strawberries near the barn.  When we "picked" them, we ate about every other one. I remember seeing a black snake there and screaming. By the time my Mom got to me, it was long gone.
• We climbed on the ears of corn in the granary.  The bin they were in was deep and narrow, so it was fun to climb up with the cobs rolling out from under you. I never saw mice or snakes in the corn, but I saw my Dad pick up a blacksnake more than once and take it to the granary to eat the mice.  So both must have been there.
• We picnicked on Mary's Creek and/or Irish Creek, usually on Sunday afternoons.  Dad always seemed to find a place where we could easily wade in the water. Here's one of several pictures of us on a picnic, spring 1957.

• I remember getting our first television in 1958.  It was black and white andt here weren't many programs to watch.  We watched Winky Dink, Howdy Doody, and Romper Room
• There was a sawmill on the farm that my Dad operated.  I only remember watching him do that once. Years later my sister and I walked to the sawmill to see if it was still there, and it was.  But it was very overgrown. Here's a photo of my picture standing next to the main saw blade.

• I remember when my baby sister was born when I was 6 years old.  Mom went to the hospital; and when we went to visit her, we were not allowed to go back to her room.  We could see Sally through the window in the nursery of the hospital.  My Mom was brought out in a wheelchair so that we could see her.  That's about all I can recall.
• Because Dad taught school, the farm was often pranked, usually on Halloween.  Many times a gate would be removed and placed in a different location.  One time, the message "Poor Jack Is Stupid" was painted on the side of the granary.   Here's a photo I took in the 1980s.  The writing is still clear.  We always joked that we wish we knew what brand they used, because that lasted a LONG time!

• The first movie I remember seeing was South Pacific (1958).  My Mom took me (and probably other siblings) to Lexington , VA, to see it.  I recognized Mary Martin as Peter Pan's Mom. I saw Sleeping Beauty (1959) in the same theater; that has always been my favorite Disney movie.
• My first and maybe only Ferris Wheel ride was at the carnival in Fairfield.  I rode with my sister Cathie on the ride.  I was terrified because I'm afraid of heights.  I closed my eyes and asked her to let me know when we were down.  The ride stopped and she said I could open my eyes. We were at the very top!  The ride had stopped just to change passengers below. I can't remember going on another one since then.

I wrote about some other memories on the farm in an earlier post.  See this page.  I may add more later if I remember other things I want on the record.