The man's name was Harve Barger. He was a blacksmith in Cedar Vale. Wish I remembered more about him. I remember seeing him walk from his home "on top of the hill" all the way down to the blacksmith shop. Always wore overalls. They were ever so neat...and, if overalls ever had pleat, Harve's did! And, when he went home at night, they were a bit soiled, but always had a "creasiness" about them!
It's what happened between his walk down the hill and back up the hill that intrigued me as a young lad. I would visit Harve, at his blacksmith shop. Watch him pump up the coals with a long, curved foot pedal, until they were white-hot! Into those coals, he would put horseshoes, plows, branding irons, and other ranch/farm implements. Those branding irons. Harve customed-made several! He stamped those brands on long 2x8 boards, nailed to the wall. I recall seeing "Rocking Chairs, Lazy 8's, Circles, Bars, and Horseshoe shapes. Wish I had taken a picture of them. Even better, wouldn't it be something to know what ranches/farms they represented? As a side note, I remember the "hissing" sound, as Harve put red-hot metal into that wooden water trough~~! Steam would rise! How wonderful! Horses would be "shoed" right there in the shop... Harve would drive those horseshoe nails right through the horses' hoofs, seldom getting a negative reation! Some of us kids would take horseshoe nails and fashion them into a ring, worn when we knew "an enemy" was approaching!
The floor of the blacksmith shop. It was black! Soot black! To my knowledge, Harve never once swept the floor! Then, there was the time when I found a piece of chalk and wrote "Harve Barger" on one of his storage cabinets. Later on, Harve once said, "Don, remember when you wrote my name on that cabinet? "Yes," I confessed! He said, "Well, you know, that's been very useful to me. When people come in and say, "How do you want your check to be made out?" I'd say, "See that name on the cabinet, THAT'LL DO!" I tell you, I still get a "chill" out of telling that story! It means so much to me because, I'd like to think, it meant a lot to Harve!
Harve was short in stature, yet he work ethic and kind words to a little red-headed kid, took the word, STATURE, to an entirely new dimension!
Thanks, Harve, for keeping the memory fires a'burning!
3 comments:
Thanks for this portrait of Harve Barger. Wayne Woodruff (RIP) wrote about him back in 2007. You might like to read what he had to say. The date is: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2007 and it was posted under my name because Wayne had not yet started to post on his own.
Don, You brought back some memories to me of Harve Barger. When I was in high school during the summer I would work the Hay Fields for Woody Oliver and Wayne Woodruff's father. Harve Barger made me a matched set of Hay Hooks because of my right hand. Memories are great if someone hits you on the head and get you thinking. Thanks Don
Tom, you brought back some memories yourself!
Once upon a time, I, too, worked a hayfield for Woody Oliver! I remember him asking me one day, "Would you like to make some money and bale some hay!" "Sure, I said!" Next morning,we drove out to a hay field. I was determined to show those "country boys" that a "city boy" could bale hay with the best of them. So, bale, I did! They couldn't get 'em to me fast enough! Fast enough, that is, until the heat of the afternoon sun began to take its toll. I succumbed to the "baling~! I got sick! I remember, to this day, their gentle words, "Don, just take it easy, rest here in the shade!"
My friends, as much as I wanted to be working in the sun, the shade was much more inviting! Didn't want to be there. Yet, I knew, what they knew, that a city boy couldn't compete with a country boy!
I took the shade. With it, I was never again was asked the same question, "Would you like to make some money and bale some hay?" I decided that baling hay was not my course in life. Although, it taught me a valuable lesson, "never under-estimate those who know how to bale and those who should have enough sense to "bale out!"
Thanks, Tom! I feel better for having confessed all of that!
P.S. I remember you and your great
family that lived in the
house, just east of the
bridge! Your story about
Harve, caused the hair on
the back of my neck, to
raise a bit! Thanks for
telling that story. It
causes the rest of us to
recognize those who have
"matched our set of hay
hooks" to make our life worth
BALING!
Such a great story,
Tom! I'm going to tell my
minister about it!!!
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