Mama Says: Life on the Farm

Nosey Cows

So, as I mentioned last week, I was raised on a farm.  My father grew watermelons, corn, peanuts, and had hogs and cows.  We always had a garden.  We never had a lot of money, but we always had food on the table.  We "put up" vegetables from the garden, either by canning or freezing, and we always had beef or pork in the freezer.

We raised chickens off and on, and therefore, had eggs most of the time.  My father also raised turkeys and sometimes quail and pheasants.  I remember that he had an incubator but I don't remember where he would get the eggs.  His birds were his hobby, I guess.  The turkeys would end up on our table, but I never recall a baked whole turkey at our house.  We only had that at my Grandmother's house at Thanksgiving or Christmas.  My father would cut the turkey up, and we would have fried turkey breast and the rest would end up in a pot of rice or noodles.

Not only did I help in the kitchen and garden, I also did other things on the farm.  After all, having four kids meant that you have free labor.  I have helped clean up "new ground."  I have hoe'd watermelons (and yes, I have heard all the jokes about being a former "hoer").  I have "turned the vines" and pruned the watermelons.  And yes, I have even helped load watermelons.

My father never grew tobacco, but I worked in tobacco for my uncle, and then later another farmer.  You started early while the tobacco was wet with dew.  There's nothing like being slapped with wet, sticky, tobacco, as you strung it on a tobacco stick.  Then, your clothing had that nasty, sticky tobacco feeling all day long.  You went home that night and didn't feel like you could wash all the sticky off.  All that for about ten dollars a day, back then.  Hmmmm...wonderful memories.

All these ramblings to say, I'm very proud of my farming heritage.  I live on the property that my father farmed.  It was property that he had gotten from his father and I believe it was his grandfather's before that.  My father's brothers were farmers as well.  We live in the middle of a rural area that we lovingly call "Watsonville."  An area farmed by a lot of Watsons in the past.  It's an area that is still farmed by Watsons today, and a lot of other Watson children, like myself, live here still.  I can't imagine being anywhere else.

Now, I have one small confession to make.  Having lived on a farm all of my life, I have never driven a tractor.  Now, I don't think my father was of the belief that women shouldn't drive tractors.  I'm pretty sure that my mama drove one.  It could be that because I had three brothers, and with all those boys around, one of them was always willing to climb on the tractor.  Or...it could possibly be that even back then, my driving skills were that evident!!!