Summer Days on the Farm
by Susan Wheeler Woods
Salem, OR
I was born soon after my father returned from World War II, the second of 10 children. We lived on a farm that our ancestors had homesteaded in 1853. As soon as I could walk, I got to help bottle-feed the orphan lambs in the barn. Soon, I was big enough to gather eggs and feed calves. It was great entertainment to watch Dad milk the cows, squirting milk into the open cats’ mouths, and I learned how to do that too. Helping round up sheep came next; however, the best thing was hanging sacks on the grass seed combine when I was 6, because I earned a quarter an hour! I was rich! A savings account held my riches not used to buy school supplies and clothes. As I grew, I progressed from sack hanger to sack sewer at 8, and combine driver at 10.
Combines then were open-air affairs, with platforms welded on the side to hold workers and a chute. Sacks were filled, sewed, and stacked in the chute to be dumped at a spot each trip around the field. A crew loaded the sacks onto a flat-bed truck for transport to the warehouse, where the seed was cleaned and sacked for sale. I never got to be on that crew, because I was a girl.
I got to operate a wind-rower (reaper) at 13 to cut the grass and lay it in rows for combining or hay, and help with the field burning. The tractor work was mostly done in the spring during school hours, so I missed out on that. As I grew, my wages (and the state minimum wage) increased until I was earning 95 cents an hour during college vacations!
I had other money-making opportunities. At 9, I bought a ewe, a dairy calf, and a horse for 4-H projects. I sold the lambs and calves every year; the horse was just for fun.
Being a girl, I also helped in the house. Those days were spent preparing and cleaning up after 3 meals (no dishwasher); canning fruits, vegetables, and jams and jellies; washing, hanging outside, and folding 5-7 loads of laundry; cleaning; and watching 2-3 children under age 5. I preferred working in the fields, because the 10-hour work days were shorter!
On Sundays, we’d load up the car, take a picnic lunch, and drive into the Cascades to collect specimens for 4-H forestry books. The county fair was an exciting opportunity to exhibit 4-H projects and sell an animal at the 4-H auction. The best exhibits got to be shown at the State Fair!
Harvest over, I was eager to return to school each fall. My savings paid for 8 terms of college. I had learned the relationship between income and labor, and the importance of saving up for what you want.
