Life on the farm provides many fond memories and probably had major influence on what I am. There were many life lessons to be learned in farming. Plans for the future were imperative, hard work was a daily event and sometimes the outcome of both were unpredictable. One learned at a very early age that there were shores to be done and schedules to maintain. My earliest recollection of shores is churning. Even at preschool age, one could crank a churn for the better part of an hour to make butter. At school age all kids had jobs including feeding animals, getting the cows in the barn for milking and helping in the fields. Children did lawn mowing by manual labor. Sometimes
my father would graze sheep on the lawn for both mowing and fertilizer. My father was very generous with my brother and me. At very early ages he would give us calves or lambs to be raised. When they matured, we in turn could sell their calves and lambs and the income was ours. Later in teenage years, he gave us a portion of land to grow tobacco and we could keep whatever income it provided. The last summer before graduating from high school, I made $1000 that went into my college fund. I have not since felt as wealthy as I did at that time.
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