More Memories

The Following stories were all written by Ray Waltons family and sure do make the good old days and the memories associated with them special.
The kids always loved to ride the swayback Morgan workhorse named Lady.  One of the times when all 4 children  Jack, Ann, Sharon, and Sandy were riding. Lady decided to go back to the barn. We thought they couldn’t fall off because she was so swaybacked, but Sandy did.  Lady stopped perfectly still and Sandy was just screaming.  Uncle Paul came running “ Are you hurt?  Where are you hurt?  Sandy said she wasn’t hurt. Uncle Paul lost it, “Then why the  **!*!** are you crying?”

    The time I was most scared at the farm was on one evening when we were getting supper.  We were having corn on the cob and they picked it just before they put it in the boiling water. It was the most wonderful corn I ever tasted when I ate it at the farm. Grandpa sent someone to the field to pick it.  He told them to get a dozen for Edith and a dozen for the rest of us.  That was about the time I couldn’t find my youngest daughter Pat.  She had just been there in the front yard playing. We were sure she had followed them to the cornfield and was lost.  We were frantic; all looking and calling, we had no luck finding her.  Someone even looked in the water trough.  Come to find out she was just tired so she laid down on a particular piece of soft grass by the side of the house and fell fast asleep.     Memories from  my Aunt Edith Walton (Ray Waltons Wife)

This is one story I remember with a chuckle.
Circus in the Hay Mow
        We cousins decided we were going to have a circus while we stayed on the farm that year. All the cousins from Milwaukee and Belvidere would be there.  We would practice all week and have the performance at the end of the week. We all had parts. Jack was ringmaster and would do dog tricks with the cow dog.   Judy was a clown.  Leigh Ann and Judy sang a duet.  I was doing a trapeze act.
The little kids, Sharon, Sandy, Pat, Jerry and Debbie sold the popcorn and drinks and tickets.
We all would sing "Down by the Old millstream". Jack rigged the trapeze by taking the hay rope and tying it to the ceiling and putting a pipe through it and back to the ceiling to tie.   We thought it was very ingenious. We made the parents come and charged them to get in. We also sold them the popcorn and Kool-Aid, which of course we got from Aunt Agnes' kitchen.
I practiced all week very hard at the trapeze so I could do it.  When it was my turn I got going really high and just as I was to hang by my legs the rope broke and I went hurling to the ground. Everyone cried out and came to my side.  It knocked the breath out of me but I was all right.  Of course the show must go on, so after the repairs were done by Jack, I started again to do my act.
   All the Parents, who’s seats were on bales of hay, clapped but we never heard the end of this; Uncle Paul had to pay to get into his own barn and Aunt Agnes had to pay for her own food!
                    Ann Walton Brandenburg   (Ray Waltons Daughter)
 
  This is the true story by Pat Walton Bengs - Ray’s youngest daughter
Rebuttal of Sandy’s account & Sharon’s, I’m sure.
Well first, let’s talk about the sheep.  Sharon convinced me they would all kill me not just the one with the bell.
    I  remember one time Sharon and Sandy talked me into climbing a tree in the woods.  I got up but I couldn’t get down.  The mean sister and cousin couldn’t talk me down either. Finally I convinced Sandy to get my Dad.  I don’t think they got in any trouble and they probably just laughed about it.
This is as I remember the story of the BIG ROCK adventure.  Sandy and Sharon always have these lame brained ideas! I remember telling them our parents would not like this--------I just know it --------and it was DARK. I remember making it to the big rock. Everyone left me and went to the top because I hated touching the rock. There were bugs and stuff I didn’t want to touch in order to climb it, especially in the DARK.  I was crying and telling them to come down. They were making fun of me from the top. I remember seeing the storm coming and lighting in the distance. I told them but they were telling scary stories and wouldn’t come down. Finally when the storm was on top of us I convinced them to head back. Of course they could all run faster than I could.  I didn’t want to get lost, but when I got stuck on the barbed wire fence you’d  think they would stop, but they kept going. I was yelling for help. Finally Jack, the only one with a heart, came back and carried me part way home. We were all drenched.  When the others got in trouble, I wanted to say,” I told you so!”
Some of my better memories, I really had some, were pumping the old player piano and singing with the family. I still love those old tunes. My very favorite place to be was in the swing in the weeping willow tree by the house. It seemed there couldn’t be a better swing in the whole world.  You could swing so high and if you would swing high enough your toes would touch the willow branches hanging down. Those were the days.
 

Denise Brandenburg -Gernhardt farm memories-Ray Walton’s granddaughter and Ann Brandenburg's daughter
When Denise heard our reminiscing she said she had a tale of her own.
       On one of the many visits to the farm with my Mom and Dad, I one time received quite an education.  We brought our camper and would set up camping in the lane past Grandma and Grandpa’s house. When we first came and getting the grand tour, taking a walk and looking at the cows and things;  Uncle Paul started telling us about the rattlesnakes and how he would have to put the cows down when they were bitten by the snakes.  For young ears that was very interesting.  Later that evening after being bathed in the house and walking to the camper in my PJ’s; I saw a snake and immediately remembered Uncle Paul’s story of how he had to put the cows down. I ran like the wind to the nearest tree with the snake in hot pursuit. I climbed the tree, hanging on the tree for dear life, screaming until Uncle Paul came.  He put his cane on the snake and cut his head off with a pocketknife.  He nonchalantly said, ”It’s not even full grown, it’s just a baby. This was probably one of many from a nest some where around. But the rest are surely sleeping.  I was not reassured.

Memories of the farm  - Sandy Walton, Adams, Ray Waltons daughter

Every summer Ann, Sandy & Pat and Mom & Dads summer vacation was to go to the farm to see all the Aunts & Uncles.  We usually visited the other Aunts and Uncles in Milwaukee and Belvidere coming or going from Indiana.  This was the only vacation we had so it was the highlight of the year.  We didn’t realize how much work we put our farm relatives to.  It usually was in August and they were in the middle of harvesting.  Sometimes we went along with them to the fields when they were bailing, we were no help though.  Usually we just played all the time.  The family never gave us an inkling we put them out, now as a grown-up I realize how much they had to juggle so we would have a wonderful vacation.
     Our most fun was the visiting Grandma and Grandpa Walton and Aunt Agnes, Aunt Hazel, Uncle Paul & Uncle Millard on their farms.  The other Aunts and Uncles would usually show up sometime during the visit so we had more cousins to play with.
      I really enjoyed the cows, pigs, and the pristine nature on the farm.  I enjoyed the sheep the least, especially the one with the bell! We were told to get away from him if he saw us in the field. I learned to run up and down those hills pretty fast.  I also liked to ride in the back of the pick-up to the dairy to take the milk. Feeding the calves and getting to ride a horse once in awhile was also on the top of the list.
    We were citified girls, so we would go barefoot on the farm.  Grandpa Walton just couldn’t fathom that, especially around the cow-pies.  He also had fun with us, as he sat in his rocking chair. He would take his cane tapping just inches away from our uncovered toes.  He would make us dance and just laugh at us.  We would also laugh also, but pretty apprehensively.
     We would sometimes go into Boscobel and shop or go swimming in the pool, but the most fun swimming was in the creeks.  The creeks on the farm proper weren’t much but when we hiked, taking our lunch, we would go farther.  One particular spring-fed stream with a big rock would be one of our destinations.  We would jump off a special rock where it was  over your head. Boy that cold spring fed water was a real wake-up call on a hot 85-90º day, but it sure refreshed. My love for nature grew there.
      My cousin Sharon and I were about the same age.  We were a pair. What one couldn’t think of the other would.  They called us Mutt and Jeff.  Sharon was tall and lanky and I was just a little bit of a thing but feisty. We did get in trouble at times.  One time, in our cowboy and Indians phase, we were in the pasture playing.  Our imaginations got the best of us and we were pretending the cows were buffalo.  We would shoot our arrows at them and they would run. We knew we weren’t supposed to make the milk cows run, but…….  Well, when the cows were brought in to be milked and one had an arrow stuck in it we were found out. We were in trouble.  We really didn’t think we could hit them let alone have the arrow stick.  We got off pretty lightly considering the incident.
            The best adventure was the midnight trek to the BIG ROCK.  This rock was about a mile in between the uncles two farms.  It was the favorite spot to go and climb and just sit.  One night about midnight Sharon and I got a wild idea when Jack came home from a date. He had just got into bed and we started needling him until he agreed to take us out to the BIG ROCK.  Our parents were out on the town, so they weren’t in the way of THIS ADVENTURE.  My little sister Patty did not want to go at all.  She was afraid of everything, but she was more afraid of staying home alone so she tagged along.  It was one of those deliciously balmy nights where you could hear a pin drop and the moon was so bright it was easy to see the way.   We got to the rock and helped Pat climb to the top and just sat feeling so satisfied with ourselves at our bravery.  Then the wind started coming up and it started getting darker.  We climbed down in a hurry.  Running home as fast as we could.  Pat crying & yelling she was afraid.  It then started thundering and lighting, which helped us find our way, but didn’t help Pat any.  We almost got home and it really started pouring rain.  Pat got stuck in the barbed wire fence.  We kept running for home while Jack went back for Pat to get her untangled from the fence.  We were all scared but we wouldn’t admit it to Pat we just pretended to be brave.
      I have a dozen more to tell, like fishing on the Mississippi and stopping at the artesian well.  And such fun we had around the player piano.  The food, the aunts and Grandma Walton made.  Teasing conversations around the table.  Using the phone, which had to be used by giving long and short rings on a crank.  Listening in to other people’s conversations, everyone in the area was on the same party line. Calling the operator for numbers by just one ring.
        There are many more stories of those times but I have to save them for someone
                                                                                             Sandy Adams

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