KANSAS FARM LIFE IN THE 40'S - HOOSIER

On reading Jay's comments of farm life in the 40's, triggered some supressed memories of my childhood. Our generation has probably witnessed as many changes in our way of living as any prior generation. As every generation, on our passing the things we have experienced and witnessed will be forgotten, expect what is in print or in pictutres. With that in mind I thought I would try and recall some of the things I experienced growing up on the farm.

On mentioning various things to my children, they think I came to Kansas in a covered wagon. At their stage in life they have not expressed much interest in learning about the "old days". I know as they grow older, they perhaps will want to know more about the ways things used to be.

I grew up on a farm one half mile north of the seven mile corner. It was the same farm that my father was raised. Seven-mile corner was west of CV on high 166. By going south would take you to Grainola and Shilder , OK.

At one time seven-mile corner consisted of a filling station, grocery store, dance area and some cabins. A lady named Cora Wallace operated it. I recall comments by my parents that made me believe real wild things happened there on Saturday nights. Probably dancing, alcohol beverages, etc. shame, shame, shame.

Hoosier has been mentioned a couple of times in various blogs. By going on back dirt roads approximately two and one half miles from our farm would take you to Hoosier. On the way, just of the road, was a metal marker. The marker was stuck in the ground and had an inscription on it. I don't recall what it said. My Dad called it "Half Way, USA". Supposedly half way, east coast, west coast, north Canada, south Mexico. I have no idea if their is any validity to the saying or not. I wonder if the marker is still there. I doubt that I could find it now as the roads have probably been gone for 50 years.

My earliest recollection of Hoosier is it had a large old school building where my father had gone to school. In my day it was used for storing hay. There was a house that Joe Westbrook lived in. Joe worked for the Meldrum brothers. I thought he looked, walked and talked like a real cowboy should. I wanted to be a cowboy like Joe.

There was a train depot, where the train stopped, coming from CV on the way to Dexter and Winfield. Some of the farm income came from selling cream. One of my duties was getting up before daylight and help milking the cows. The milk was put into a hand cranked, ( we later got one with electric motor) cream separator. The separator separated the cream from the milk. The milk we feed to the pigs and when we had a full five-gallon can of cream, we would take it to Hoosier and it would be put on the train.

There was also a house that had a room that served as the post office. George Prather lived in the house and he was the postmaster and mail carrier. ( He later move to CV) George would receive the mail, most of it coming on the train, sort it and put it into large leather pouches. He would then get into his automobile and deliver the mail to the farm familes mail boxes.

My Dad was substitute mail carrier. If George was gone, Dad would deliver the mail for him. If it rained and some roads were impassible by auto, Dad would deliver the mail on horseback. Seems like I recall him saying he sometimes had to ride 20 to 25 miles. I remember riding a horse and going with him. I doubt that I went all the way. I was probably 5 or 6 years old.

Hoosier was probably most noted for its stockyard. Cattle were shipped in and out by train. Mike and Brady Meldrum were the largest ranchers in the area. I remember, one or both would drive up in a Cadillac, chewing on a cigar, wearing a cowboy hat and pant legs tucked inside their boots. To me that was what success was all about.

The stockyard had scales and many pens for the cattle. It also had a "dip" with a ramp going down into and out of. The dip was probably 10 feet long and contained creosote or oil mixture. The cattle brought in from Texas or where ever, were driven down the ramp and had to swin to go up the other ramp. This was to kill ticks that could cause tick fever. They did not want it to spread to other cattle.

One time my cousins from Winfield were visiting. We rode horses up to the stockyard to play. A cousin was crawling over the dip, slipped and fell into the dip mixture. Needless to say no one wanted to ride a horse with him back to the house. To my knowledge he never got tick fever.

More later on going to school.