Hook (Continued from Page B 2) help. The medication costs $3OO a month. “Most days her mind is good and sometimes she has better sense than I, but if she falls down, she r-rn’t get up,” he said. Hook himself never went to a doctor until he was 67 years old. “I had a little bit of heart trouble, but I got over it,” he said. He reads extensively and now takes vitamins and herbs, which he believes enables him to work tire lessly. Despite becoming caretaker and housekeeper, Hook keeps up the tradition of holding family holiday meals for 28 family members. He cans 250 jars with such things as chow chow, spaghetti sauce, beans, peaches, and all SPECIAL S>cu/iMjqA OH/ SAWD U STeu# S H AVI N GS V.'> For More Information Contact: Wes Geib, Secondary Hardwood Products Department Weaker Sons, Inc., Lebanon, PA 800-344-3114 or locally 717-867-2212 Fax 717-867-2271 types of pickles and a cococodon called pickle hash made with cucumbers, onions, celery, vine gar, spices, sugar and water. He fills a 12-gallon crock with homemade sauerkraut and makes SO gallons of applebutter to share with other family members. “I got more than ISO recipes from Lancaster Farming and they are dam good recipes,” he said. Hook has this advice for other men: “Husbands better take good care of their wives, because you find out how hard they worked when you need to do everything yourself.” His son to whom Hook had turned over the livestock and the equipment on the home farm died of cancer in 1991. His daughter-in law Loretta, her son Jim and daughter Debbie take care of the dairy end of the farm. Field work, equipment repair. Call for Walter H. and managing die farm is consid ered Hook’s job. Hook is working on another pro ject and that is to build a 64x50-foot pole shed for hay bale storage. “The neighbors around here are really good at helping out When my son had cancer, they really helped us. Just this year, they helped dig out an unloader that was buried in the haylage, and I suspect they’ll help build this pole shed,” he said. When Hook works on the farm, he takes his wife along and family members who liveon the farm help watch her. Hook was 65 years old before he discovered he was actually bom in 1913 and not 1914. He had never had a birth certifi cate since the midwife in Virginia did not send the information to the state. When he was working on ng and scheduling Lancutr Farming, Saturday. July 30,1W4-H establishing a birth record, an old er relative told him that the year .that he was to begin school, according to state law, it would have required a 15-mile trip daily. His parents told the authorities he was a year younger to avoid the long trip to school. They figured no one would ever know the difference. No one did—not even Hook— although he was always much big ger than the other children in his class. “I was the one who always had to carry the water and do other chores required in one-room schools during those days,” he said. But the worst offense from the change in his birthdate was “depriving me of driving one year. 1 had to drive that buggy an extra year,” he said. Although Hook said that his life has not been without troubles, he sees fanning becoming more diffi cult for families today. “The overhead is just eating us up. It’s getting rougher and rough er for a guy to farm. I saw my tax bill go from $53 to $5,800. Work men’s Compensation cost $4,000 annually and one visit from the vet is $100,” he said. “If you don’t have a woman behind you, you’d better forget about farming,” he advises pros pective farmers. Recently, Clover Farm Dairies gave a special award to Hook for shipping milk to their dairy for 50 years. “There used to be 22 dairies in Reading. Now there is only one Clover Farms,” said Hook. He likes to think he had a part in their success since he was affiliated with them for 50 years. Her Loads 1 only
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers