Sunday, May 17, 2015

A blast from the past....

I am in a reminiscing mood, been going back through my posts about childhood, and noticed this had not been seen by many of my viewers now. So thought I would copy and paste it here.
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These photos were taken long before I even thought about a camera, and at least the top two maybe before I was born. But I am not sure about that. The top is our horse, Old Bob, and that is our dad. Neal nor I know who is on the horse...not any of us kids. And if you look close you see a little girl standing behind Bob. I have no idea who that is either. Bob looks like he is either getting ready to go to work, or coming in from working...notice the collar, etc.

I did not think I had a picture of Bob, but my nephew reminded me of this one. And I had it...but I did not have the one I wanted and of all the photos I took once I got a camera, I cannot find one picture with him in it.

The photos below are taken looking down the hollow from our old home place....all the fields you see plowed up were probably all the work of Bob...as Neal mentioned in his blog, Bob probably kept us from starving. And though these fields don't look very big, it is still a lot of work for one old work horse.
I am sure my brothers could tell you much more about it than me. Each year the ground would be turned over with a plow, which a friend did that had a team of horses, followed by Bob pulling the disc harrow, and maybe pulling a drag over it after that. I barely remember the drag...I don't even have a clear picture in my mind. So I hope Neal or George will pipe in here and explain it. I guess you would call it an implement to pull over the ground to level it out more and maybe to help get rid of the bigger clods of dirt....

I know this picture I am painting is about as clear as mud, but still maybe you will feel some of the same feelings I have when I look at these old photos. It is a time gone by that will never be again. And especially for us that know this place, it does not even look like the same place today. It seemed so big back then, and now when we go up there, we wonder how they raised all the food that they did there.

Plus there was tobacco to raise and field corn for the animals, and probably corn to raise to for cornmeal. I don't know if we raised hogs when we lived up there, but I think we did. When we moved to the new house...we raised and butchered 4 hogs every year...or at least most years. But I will save talking about that for another day.

It is later....I wrote the above this morn and I have just got off the phone with my brother. We were reminiscing. He reminded me a bit back about how Old Bob did not like to be spit on...I don't know if anyone ever actually did. But he got mad if you just made the sound like you were spitting. You ask how do you know he got mad? Make no mistake--he had body language. His ears went back and you could tell as plain as day. I can remember seeing him get mad at someone, but don't remember who or what for. The funny thing about it, I told Neal I never had him get mad at me...I think he would have bit someone had he thought he could get by with it when he was mad. But I tended to spoil him what little I could. He was done getting age on him by the time I got very old. I can remember riding on him a few times when I was very little to get from the old place to our new house and I can remember my older brother plowing the garden a time or two with him...but basically I remember him being retired for the most part since I was old enough to start remembering much.

11 comments:

  1. I get mad when people spit too!

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  2. now i am wondering who found out spitting made him mad, thinking a brother??? i love old pictures, they stir up long forgotten memories.. i do agree that when we look at things from thepast they are smaller than they appeared back then

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  3. that was a nice post Rose. I have a habit of forgetting the bad memories and remembering the good times only........I also do not like people spitting.

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  4. Great memories- and so good to write them down. Horses do have their little quirks..don't think I have heard of one getting upset about spitting noises, though I know lots of cowboys who spit chew. LOL! Have a wonderful Sunday.

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  5. NEAL would NEVER have SPIT on Old Bob, would he????? ha ha ...

    Love reading about Family History and the old stories. Glad you found a picture of Bob... He was a big part of your lives for sure...

    So glad that Neal showed us the old home place. Love that old holler/area....
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  6. Such a fun memory picture. Have a good picture to share. Have a wonderful Sunday.

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  7. I can only imagine what strong memories these pictures bring up! Do you think the implement could be a plow? We have lots of farmers plowing the fields to get ready to plant. Your dad was a handsome fellow! Maybe one of your brothers would know who the mystery children are?

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  8. Great memories, Rose. Bob was certainly a life saver on a farm. My bob, not the horse, tells me about growing up on the farm in the tiny town he is from.
    Maybe the implement was a drag. We had a drag from breaking up clods and leveling the arena. Maybe that was used instead of kids following behind the horse and disk and breaking clods by hand. Maybe?
    Love the pictures of the land. All the hard work your family did. Wow!
    MB

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  9. I enjoyed these photos and memories very much, Rose. I hope you will have a nice Monday.

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  10. Your memories are wonderful! Enjoyed this post very much!

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  11. Lovely memories, Rose. I haven't gone through my family's photos in a very long time. Hmmmm.

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