I was remembering my father this morning. How EVERYTHING could be repaired with baling wire. Machinery was held together until parts could be fixed or replaced. Every gate stayed shut because of a wire loop over the fence post. Vines were trained on it. When we left the farm, he lamented for years that he no longer had baling wire. My brothers and I still laugh when we remember Dad and the wire. The twine now used doesn't seem to be recycled the same way. Mostly I see it along side the road, ditches, pastures etc.

Years ago, I mentioned this to an older friend of mine who shared a great story with me. It was about her father and baling wire. She came from a large family and her mother decided to have her last baby at the hospital. This was quite an event because the hospital was so far away and nobody went there just to have a baby! For the first time, her father was responsible for all the children and the house. Although his methods were different, my friend told me that he took very good care of them. Finally the day came for her mother and the new baby to come home. Her father fed all the children, bathed them and then carefully dressed each little girl in a frilly little dress that he had washed, starched and ironed. Then he tackled their hair. He very carefully did each girl's hair in two braids. And then, you guessed it, he held the braids together with baling wire. My friend said her mother laughed so hard about that. Her father couldn't understand what the fuss was about.

These are the kind of memories I would like my children to have of their childhood. Not discontent because they didn't have reliable cars, or fancy cars or boats or ski equipment etc. I very fondly remember my childhood on the farm. How about the rest of you? Do you find, like me, that your favorite memories involved things that didn't go right? Or seem unimportant now? One of my favorite memories is the taste of grape koolaid, made in Mom's big canner, when we were putting up hay. And that reminds me, why did Koolaid change the flavor of the grape?

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), August 27, 2000

Answers

Cheryl:

My mother was from a family of 13. All home-birthed by my grandfather. First eight were boys, which, it is said, delighted my grandfather more than my grandmother as they were on a farm in Minn. When a child was due all of the boys had to go sit in the formal parlor and woe be it to anyone who made any noise or fuss. My Uncle Paul said on the ninth one his father carried out the newborn baby to present it and said, "This one is different, this one is a girl." Two more girls, one boy, and one final girl.

Story about their first car. Granddad went to pick up a used Model T in town. Brought it home and drove it into the building which would be the garage. Well, my Uncle George says he remembers Granddad hollering whoh, whoh, as he drove it through the back wall. Just bent one front axel, which they took to the blacksmith shop to get straightened. Uncle George said after that one of the older boys had to drive.

On the dairy farms there was a water holding tank for the cans of milk until the creamery picked them up. When working in the fields beer and soda would be kept in the cool, but not cold, water. Momma said she always knew she wouldn't get any of the first beer bottle after six kids all had a 'sip'.

Remember neighbors or relatives coming over to visit and play cards, usually penuckle (spelling?). Don't know where it came from, but somehow a washing tub of beer and soda with actual ice would be present. One older kids was sent to get a soda and smuggle out a bottle of beer. Momma had those eyes in the back of her head and knew what was going on, but didn't say anything. This was in Wisc. were even today a beer culture exists.

Had the family stayed in Wisc. I might be a dairy farmer today. Don't know.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 27, 2000.

I didn't have the opportunity to grow-up on a farm, but since marrying and having six kids, there seemed to be plenty of opportunities to try out every imaginable use for duct tape! My olodest daughter laughingly told her kids the other day about the stir it caused at the local hospital when we rushed in with my oldest sons head held together with an improvised butterfly bandage made of duct tape! Made me feel like I had managed to give them a good memory or two! And does anyone out there remember grape fizzies? They were a dissolvable tablet you put in the bottom of a glass, added water too, and they fizzed-up into a carbonated drink---I could have sworn my Grandmother made that with magic!:)

-- Lynn Royal (homesteadmama@aol.com), August 27, 2000.

Oh yeah - I remember fizzies!! They came in orange, cola and root beer flavor too! We would whack them lightly with the hammer to break them in pieces, take a big drink of water and then pop a peice of fizzie in our mouths and see if we could make foam come out our noses!! (Which probably explains a LOT about me!)

How about building forts/castles/houses in the hay mow with bales of straw or hay? And it used to really snow back in those days too - I remember building snow forts at school and dashing for the playground every recess and lunch hour, the 5th grade against the 6th grade, in capture the flag snowball fights. And girls had to wear dresses to school in those days!

Playing school and store and restaurant. Walking to school in canvas sneakers, that didn't dry out from the dew 'til past lunch time. Paste, instead of glue. Construction paper squirrels and acorns and turkeys with their tail feathers made by tracing your hand. Pasting your very best spelling test or report to a piece of construction paper and hanging it in the hallway for everyone to admire during the PTA soup supper.

You know, it's kind of funny/kind of sad...my daughter and her cousins sit and listen to me and MY cousins talk about those days (laughing our fool heads off usually), the same way we used to listen to our folks and THEIR cousins tell about their childhood pranks and fun. Wonder what stories our kids will tell? I'm going to have 30 hours of enforced togetherness in the next week (trip to OK), just my daughter and I - I think I'm going to tap into HER childhood memories. By Golly - it's not to late to make some!!

Happy memories to you all!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), August 27, 2000.

I remember the baling wire too ! But times change, I guess DJ will have memories of me, my duct tape and hot glue gun. When I first got together with his mother, we rented a duplex apartment from a landloard from hell. The only way to get him to your apartment was be late with the rent. Itried to get him to fix the seal and mounts on the commode for 2 months, he finally told me to fix it myself. 10 hotglue sticks later, it was sealed and mounted. When we moved 6 months later, the plumber had to use a prybar and his truck with a rope to remove the "throne". DJ still tells that one.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), August 27, 2000.

I was an "army brat" but had aunts and uncles that lived in the country! I loved to go and visit with them. I can still remember crawling into the big, cold bed with the wonderful smell of sunshine!!!! They didn't heat the bedrooms and all those quilts on the beds were SO heavy and after a few minutes I was as warm as could be and didn't want to get out in the morning! Years later, I found the wonderful smell of sunshine~~~after hanging my sheets on the clothes lines to dry!!!!I do it all the time now--winter and summer!!! I hope one day my grandchildren will find the wonderful smell of sunshine at my house in a big, cold bed!!!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), August 27, 2000.

I loved fizzies. There were the greatest. We seldom got pop and fizzies were just as good. What happened to them? Everyone, make memories now, this very day for your family. We never know when it will be too late for whatever reason.

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), August 27, 2000.

Even though baling wire is gone, I use the poly bale string much the same way. Last spring when I set up my portable hog panels I use the string to tie them off to T-posts, I hook gates, braid into ropes and so forth. The plus about poly-twine is that I can see it on the ground where the wire is not that easy to spot so, it can be picked up before it gets into the mowers. As for D-tape we by that in 3 roll packages, we call it "Red Gate Welding Rod", with enough of it you an hold nearly anything together, getting it off is another thing. My grandfather built a chicken yard fence with baling wire and 6' saplings that lasted for years, it looked a lot like snow fence, it was quite job twisting all the wire around those sticks.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), August 28, 2000.

Baling wire is not gone... we have about 10 miles of it twisted around a support beam in the barn.(keeps it close at hand and off the ground) My sister uses about a two foot length in each hand to witch water.

-- Mona (jascamp@ipa.net), August 28, 2000.

For those of you yearning for some of those commercially prepared favorite foods from your childhood, they may still be available. Find out at:

www.hometownfavorites.com

-- R. (thor610@yahoo.com), August 28, 2000.

Well, if you pine for baling wire, there is a very acceptable substitute. Go to any concrete supply place - you know - the guys who have concrete block, reinforcing rod, reinforcing wire (for your tomato cages) and ask for the wire they use to hold rebar and mesh together. Very malleable, pretty cheap, and indispensible around the homestead! GL!

-- Brad (Homefixer@SacoRiver.net), August 29, 2000.