Hot Summer Time

I loved waking to a soft breeze blowing in the south window over our bed, but soon that breeze was HOT! Temperatures were above 100 that July and August.

Looking west out over the prairie I could see the many blooming wild flowers swaying in that hot breeze and smell their fragrance. Morris usually picket me a bouquet of flowers as he walked through the fields.

There was a porch across the west side of the house and one across the east side of the house. I would sometimes place a wet towel or sheet over the screen door so the breeze would come through it and cool us off.

We had a small electric window fan, about a foot across that Morris put in the west window and this ingenious man, put 2 bales of hay on the porch just in front of that window and sat a bucket with a few holes in the bottom of it. Filled the bucket with water and sat it on top of the hay and it slowly seeped through the hay and the fan brought in moist air that cooled us some.

Usually the boys only wore their diaper as it was so hot.

Ken with his ragged Andy and his bobba

Church

We had long hours of hard work, dusty and sweaty overalls, complexions that were deeply tanned from working in the sun and we seldom took time to sit down and relax except at meal time and on Sunday at Church time.

Morris and I both belonged to the Christian Church in Nashville, Missouri but Morris’s Mom attended the Baptist Church in Minden mines, which was only 5 miles away, so we started to church there.

One Sunday Morris’s Mom, Dorothy, and his brothers Bill and Richard came home from church with us for dinner. Bill had also brought his good friend and classmate, Charlie Clegg. They were both about 15 years old then.

As Dorothy and I were busy in the kitchen  preparing dinner for all of us,  baby Michael began to cry for attention and Dorothy handed him over to Bill and said…’Take care of him”.

Charlie had picked up my Doctor Spock book on  The Common Book of Baby and Child Care, and as Michael continued to cry , Bill said….”Read faster Charlie – Read Faster!”