Dear grandsons:I only helped milk "Bossie".. my Uncle Hrram's cow twice. My little hands and fingers would get too tired. Remembering the farm brought back a hilarious memory of one of our neighbor girls, Violet.

Dad was always very generous and if a neighbor had special need and we could help dad was ready to do so: except-- he would never allow his horses to be worked more than 6 days without rest. Even if there was a need, no horse of ours worked on Sunday if it had worked the past 6 days. (His boys didn't come under that rule. When work was to be done, we did it.) But if it was otherwise, our teams were available to neighbors.

This included milk, too. No neighbor went without milk when we had all those cows. So one night Violet came after their bucket of milk and got there just as Curt and I were starting to milk. She offered to help so I gave her a bucket and milk-stool and said she could start with the cow on that end. I just got set down to the one I was milking when I heard an awful scream and heard, "I'm going to kill you!" Then she came down that walkway yelling, "That cow on the end is NOT A COW."

Of course not --the animal on the end was our bull, but I never thought about that and it was a bit dark back there.Poor Curt-- he had a queer laugh which we called "snickering," which made him shake all over and every once in a while, as we milked that night, I (and violet) could hear him. Violet would yell out "It is NOT funny."

Well, by the time we finished milking and she had her bucket of fresh milk to take home, all was well and she agreed to be my friend. "BUT don't ever pull that again!" she warned.

Well, tis fun to remember things like that but that memory also reminds me of my Dad -- always strictly honest and fair and so willing to share. If a neighbor had a need and dad could fill it, he did. And he taught his boys and girls also to be thoughtful and generous. I often wonder if any of us ever lived up to his standard in that. He was considered by folk who knew him as one on whom you could really count. What a legacy to leave his family.

Have a GOOD And fun day.

Oh one more thing about dad: he never pestered his friends but then he didn't have e mail either. So I am free to do the pestering.