M-Lancaater fuming. Saturday, Oacambar 5,1987
On being g*
a farm
mH
■*■ m/Km
-And other
hazards
Joyce Bnpp
My life passed before my eyes.
That statement is often used to
describe those mental split seconds
of reaction to a near-miss of some
potential fatality. Recovering vic
tims of automobile accidents, heart
attacks, plane crashes, and falls
from high places frequently repot
early-life flashback incidents.
A family public sale. I’ve
decided, though far less traumatic,
creates a similar effect
Last week, my life passed
before my eyes-accompanied by
die sing-song chant of a local auc
tioneer. Pieces of our family his
tory neatly lined the edges of the
yard where we four kids played
endless round of croquet and bad
minton, squashed Mom’s peonies
sliding into third base, and
squabbled over inconsequendals
in the manner of all siblings.
Actually, it was more a house
cleaning than anything else, a rid
ding of excess miscellaneous items
for which my folks have no use in
their next house.
Gone away to a new life, for
instance, is the old, tall, wooden
wardrobe through which I fre
quently sorted as a teenager. That
wardrobe agonized with me many
times over what would be appro
priate few my wearing to various
memorable events.
Another tall storage unit, lined
up near the third-base peony bush,
was also sorted through periodical
ly during my early childhood. It
was a white kitchen cabinet, its
shelves woe then known to house
such delicacies as the jar of forbid
den maraschino cherries. Only the
cabinet and I knew of the occasion
al niching of the forbidden fruit I
■
£k
think.
Up for bids was the old walk
behind garden tractor with which
my dad spent so many hours. It
chugged along for many miles in
its lifetime, working rows for pota
toes, cultivating string beans, turn
ing, smoothing, and readying soil
for the vegetable and flower seed
lings Mom started at a wide sun
splashed window on our enclosed
back porch.
A wooden, flatbed wheelbarrow
evoked mixed emotions. Overrid
ing the pleasant memories of an
occasional ride on the wheelbar
row was the recollection of its
more familiar loads: bags of pota
toes we had to help pick up to be
stored for the winter in the ground
cellar. How I disliked that job! In
fact, at about age 11, 1 equated
picking potatoes with slave labor.
“Child abuse” was an unknown
term then, or I probably would
have labeled it that.
One item which held no mem
ory at all for me-I didn’t even
know what it was-brought laugh
ing groans from my sister, five
years my elder.
The large, clear glass, jug-like
container, she explained, was a
fuel supply tank for a kerosene
stove once used in our household.
One of her childhood chores was to
fill the container with kerosene.
When filled, the glass had to be
flipped upside down, and the
spring-loaded fuel release
mechanism on the top inserted into
the appropriate spot to drip the fuel
to the stove.
She remembered with a grimace
that it was impossible to flip the
full container of kerosene and
nnce
attach it to the stove without the
smelly, oily kerosene getting all
over her hands. Lucky for me, the
stove disappeared before I came of
kerosene-responsible age.
I offered to buy the thing for her
-just for old times* sake. She
declined.
Likewise, the farmer offered to
buy for me a batch of faintly famil
iar paint-by-number masteipieces,
which he figured would tremend
ously amuse our offspring. I
declined. And I neglected to check
if the footprints from the cat walk
ing across the wet oil paints still
remained.
As bits and pieces of our early
life dispersed throughout a gray,
wet, bone-chilling morning, it
became obvious that a stack of yes
terday’s memories was accumulat
ing near a pair of very familiar
male persons. Heads together in
studied concentration, they plotted
new uses for a collection of
motors, pipe, wire and other mis
cellaneous gimme-a-dollar items
intended for transformation in the
How To Buy A Microwave
YORK Is a microwave oven
or microwave cookware on your
holiday shopping list. If so, attend
the class ‘Tips on Buying a Micro
wave and Accessories” on Decem
ber 3,7:00-9:00 p.m. at the Exten
sion Meeting Room, 112 Pleasant
Acres Road, York. The cost is
$5.00. You’ll get shopping points
to help you make the best decision,
machinery shop to farm-type
gadgetry recycling.
Not only did I see my life flash
ing by my eyes.
Some of it came along home to
haunt me.
learn how a microwave works and
different features to examine.
You’ll also see some of the acces
sories and cookware available and
learn to select just the right cook
ware for your needs.
Advance registration must be
made. Call the Penn State
Cooperative Extension Service at
757-9657 to register.