The Torment’s of the Modest, Secluded Farm Life

Thanksgiving was always celebrated at night as hunting season was a big event for us in the country. Winter meat for us kids, Dad would always get his even though he never ate it himself. Mom couldn't trick him and he'd sure get mad if she tried too. This was a time of year when we never seen much of the boys. We were always excited when dark came and they weren’t back home. I would always run to get Dad’s lunch pail when he came home every night to see if it was heavy. That would mean the heart and liver was inside and he got his deer. Then we’d run to see what he got.

Christmas was always lots of fun for us all. Grandma ( Dad’s Mom ) joined us with her basket of fruit and nuts, the only time we got an orange and she made sure it was a big one. We'd all get sent up to bed for about three hours, then Dad would make noise like Santa on the roof top and ring the bells that always hung on the door. And with a few ho ho ho we were told to come down the stairs where we would have to wait for everyone who may have really fallen asleep to come down. Dad passed each gift one at a time so we all could see the expression on their faces when we found out who got what. Most all the gifts were not wrapped so we would sit in anticipation of who would get what. The ones that were wrapped were the ones from our godparents. We all got something to wear home made and one or two toys or game. Then Mom had a table of food we could choose to eat or play with what we got for a few hours.

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In the morning I called the farm once more. Howard’s mother was there to take us to the airport, so now it was time to say goodbye to my sister. She had already shared last night’s experience with me. So all we could do was to hug each other and promise to call just as soon as I got there. I don’t think Howard’s mother understood what was going on, but I didn’t really care. She never said a thing, but I felt she thought it was silly. She didn’t know how close we were all brought up to be. I also felt I was leaving security to go into the unknown. I had absolutely no idea what married life was or where we were going to stay, or what we were going to do. I didn’t know anything about the service and didn’t know what I was going to do when we arrived in Hawaii.

We were to spent four days in California while waiting for Howard’s military plane to Hawaii. I was to take a regular flight out. I was scared at first on the plane, and took Mom’s car sick pills, but all that did was to make me sleep. I had begun to enjoy watching what looked like snow covered mountains. It was so pretty. When we were coming down some of the states looked like a big housing project, with all kinds of toy cars and trucks to play with in a sandbox. Patrick would have had lots of fun with this one. Back home we had a sand pile, He used to enjoy pretending all kinds of silly things when he was playing with his trucks in it. As soon as we got to California I let Patrick know all about it. During our stay there we talked all our hurt feelings out, about how I hated leaving him behind. The brief stay gave me a chance to send out all those thank you cards for our wedding gifts. I didn’t like taking the rest of the plane ride alone, But Howard’s mother had given me a number to call when I arrived in Hawaii. It was of people she knew that were stationed there, I was to call them as soon as I arrived. Howard also spent a lot of time telling me it was going to be alright. There were no stops on the way so I should have no trouble. He also saw me off at the airport before going on his way.