Mary Elizabeth (Atkinson) Klein (1916-2001)
We moved to the “north farm”, about 5 miles northeast of Bristol, the first week of November 1950. We had spent the better part of the summer at the Bury farm, as Barney was needed for haying and harvesting. It was the first year John ventured into combining. Prior to that the grain was cut with a binder and the resulting bundles were held in readiness of the annual advent of a threshing crew. The place we moved to was owned by Pete Sandell who had retired and was living with his daughter in Minneapolis. The original house had burned down some years before and the barn destroyed by high winds or a small tornado. He had erected a small 2-bedroom bungalow, which was about 5 years old. It had a full basement and an exceptionally large cistern with an excellent filter. We drank this water and used it for washing and cooking. The cistern never went dry even thru’ some very dry years. It was a blessing in that the well water was full of minerals and was very distasteful. The only amenity in the house was electricity. This was the age of REA (Rural Electric Administration) and bit-by-bit most farms were installing the power. Our second year the owner had a barn built. It accommodated 10 milk cows, the calves in season, our saddle horse and a cream separator room. The second floor was a haymow and oat bin. Other buildings included hog house, chicken coop, granary and the usual and essential outhouse. By the latter Barney rigged a shower for use during the summer months. He built a 3-foot square platform and a framework around it, which held a tarp in lieu of walls, and above it all he mounted a recycled Ford gas tank complete with spigot and shower attachment. We kept the tank filled with water, which was then heated by the sun’s rays. On cooler days or when there were to be more than two showers in a short time, I heated up some water on the kitchen stove. What a boon after a long and sweat-producing day!
I write this narrative as memories come to me so needs move back for a bit to the immediate post war days. Barney managed to save much of his PFC pay. He did however send me some lovely hand carved cameos from Italy and hand styled leatherwork from Morocco. With some of his savings we purchased a 75×200 ft. lot about a half block from his parents. Barney erected a 2-car garage of cinder blocks on a cement slab. And fixed it up for living quarters. We set up housekeeping here before Jim was born. The long-range plan was to; build a home and he had drawn up the plans and when Jim was a bit over one year old he ran in the foundation. There would be no basement as the water table was too high. When we made the decision to go to the farm he traded the property to a Eureka implement dealer for a large Oliver tractor, which they delivered to the farm in Kidder Township, Day County. It served him well during our 17 years there.
As I have mentioned there was little cash to work with but that didn’t mean we were drudges!
We both loved to fish and hunt upland game. Lakes and dams were within short driving distance and Day County at that time was a Mecca for ring neck pheasant hunting. We were in the Central Flyway so usually waterfowl was plentiful. Also a number of species nested in the potholes and small lakes.
The first winter on the farm Barney attended, under a GI benefit provision, a class in agriculture. It convened in Andover, about 17 miles west, one night a week. Not a bad distance if he could just jump in the car and go. However due to the abundance of snow and almost daily winds of 15 -35 miles and hour, travel on the side roads was next to impossible. I referred in another segment to that snow bound winter. He rode faithful Scout, our two-year-old horse, over to Burys the afternoon of the class. From there he drove to his class and back then stayed overnight with the Burys. He and Scout returned the next day. I recall one of those days in particular. The drifts had been building all night and the snow was moving horizontally that morning. I was sure Barney would not attempt to turn that young inexperienced into that bitter northwest gale. I gazed out the window to check on the storm and there about 200feet from the house was this snow-covered silhouette of horse and rider. Scout had plodded relentlessly, head bent into the wind, through belly deep drifts and blinding snow to reach HOME! I was so glad to see them but had not worried about it, as I was so sure they would not start out. We did not have a telephone during our 17 years on the farm so I learned to trust Him who so amply cared for us.
I don’t remember the year but it was probably the mid to late ‘50s Barney started driving the school bus on a 5 day a week route north of Bristol. One of the pick-ups was at the Maynard Sigdestad farm where he picked up Lola and Richard. Lola later became our daughter-in-law although it had nothing to do with the bussing! Sometimes he drove the bus that carried the basketball team to out of town games and he would also drive for special events. Several times he took the Senior Class on the end of the year class trip. Sometimes this was to the Black Hills and on a couple of occasions I went along as a chaperone. We both enjoyed being with young people so this was a vacation,
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