Mary Elizabeth (Atkinson) Klein (1916-2001)
(Home Again)
Although he was happy to be home he was restless for sometime. The adrenalin had been surging for so long, now it was difficult to settle back into a small town pace. Before long he was coaching Junior Legion Baseball. His boys won the district but lost out in regional play.
Barney was catcher for the Eureka baseball team for 15 years starting at the age of 15. In the 30s and 40s amateur baseball was the “the game”. Nearly every town in the state had a team and there were rural teams also. I sat in the bleachers thru’ several state tournaments in 100+ degrees—and loved it! Eureka was often a contender and sometimes came out champ. For a few years, after the service men returned, the town fielded 2 teams each playing in a different league.
He resumed the concrete and brick laying trade. At that point in time sidewalks, cement drives and floors were troweled by hand at least by the small contractor. In time his knees began to rebel and was forced to think of getting into other work. It so happened he received tow offers about the same time. A friend of ours was manager of the local Red Owl grocery and he encouraged him to train for management. Also John Bury, my sister’s husband, approached him about assisting him with his farming operation. He had acquired more land and needed a full time man and his sons were not big enough yet to help. The offer included of a farm to live on and the use of machinery to farm it. After weighing pros and cons he opted for the farm. He had asked me what I thought best. I felt that if he was to do the work, he should decide. I was indeed happy when he chose the farm. Farm life is what I loved, even with the hard work and long hours. Barney used to tease me, when we lived in town, by saying “I got the girl off the farm but am not able to get the farm off the girl.” We some times had zero cash flow but it was a good life and a great place to raise a family. In addition to working agreement we were accountable to Our Maker and to each other.
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