Jerry, The Bull

It's interesting to me that the older I get the more memories seem to pop up in my mind with little to no prompting. I was just posting one of my children's stories this morning and all of a sudden I thought of Jerry. Jerry was the biggest meanest bull ever, or so I thought when I was a little girl.

As I have said, we walked about a quarter of a mile to the highway where we caught the bus. I am beginning to think that I was a little wimp when I think back to those days.  I was afraid of mice, wasps in the outhouse but most especially Jerry.
Jerry was a Hereford bull. He had a white face and a red body and the meanest eyes this little girl had ever seen. He was big. Jerry would come running to the fence to greet us when we were walking down the driveway. In my little girl estimation it was not a greeting of "Hello, I am so glad to see you." It was more like, "Hey, you kids. If you get close enough I am going to eat you."

One day my dad came in the house and told mom that Jerry had gotten out of the fence. We needed to stay in the house until he and the neighbor man could get him back in the field. He was in a terrible hurry to not only get him back in the pasture, but to get the fence fixed. In my grownup mind our fences weren't the best. I can remember fence posts being tree limbs mixed in with regular posts.

Like most of my stories, they end up well. They got Jerry back in the pasture where he belonged, but here is the kicker. My dad said he needed help mending fences. My mom was way too busy baking for the grocery store and taking care of my little brother and probably a hundred other things, so dad took me along to hand him these little "U" shaped things that fastened the fencing to the posts. Yes, Jerry was watching our every move planning his next escape. I was terrified and kept telling my daddy that the fence was fixed good enough and that we should go back to the house.

I just Googled the proper name for those U shaped nails. They are called Fencing Staples. There are even YouTube videos explaining the correct way to use them. Nowadays they have a battery operated tool that farmers use instead of a hammer that often times missed the staple and hit my dad's thumb.That would have tickled my dad because he loved to invent things even up into his sixties.

Where Jerry got his name I will never know. We didn't know anyone named Jerry, but as time went by as it always does a baby Hereford calf came to live on an acreage that my husband Wally and I owned. I had gone to an auction. It was an adventure for me. He was a bottle baby that hated milk. I bought him for two dollars. He would drink milk replacer, but he never grew any taller than a mini horse. Of course, we named him Jerry after his fierce ancestor or as it was his mean namesake, because he too, was an escape artist and was often found in the house yard.

One day a Sears repair man had come out to do a maintenance check on my washer. Jerry, the little bull was very interested in the tools and parts in the back end of the van the technician was getting out. I saw what was happening and I said, "Jerry, get out of there. How many times do I have to take you back to the pasture?" The technician straightened up and there was Jerry; A Sears technician I worked with. We had a good laugh that day.
 Oh the memories continue to pop up. I'll probably see you soon with another.
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The picture of the bull is a Wiki picture, but in my mind's eye it resembles Jerry to a T.

Leave A Dish

I decided to do some dishes by hand this morning. I enjoy doing dishes. It has always been a time for me to have fun with my sister-in-laws, my sister, my mother and my kids. They often didn't want to do the dishes when they were teens, but almost always once we got started we talked about their day at school or at work.
My mom would tell me stories and I can even remember doing dishes with my grandmother. Yes, dishes is a short time out of the day for me to solve the world's problems, to worry about my children, and to think about others who have brought food to my table.

This being the holiday season when often folks bring side dishes to your home or when you take food to theirs leave the dish with a smile and say, "You keep it. I had such a good time today. Think of me when you wash it." Well, that is exactly what was happening this morning. As I was thinking about my Thanksgiving Day menu I found myself washing a dish that my late mother-in-law left me one day. She had brought something for a meal. I can remember telling her, "Just a minute I'll quick wash up your dish so you can take it home with you." She said, "Ah, just keep it. It may come in handy some day." I use that dish almost every day and every day I think of her.

I have very old dishes that belonged to my grandmother and my mother. I have given many of them away so others may enjoy them, it being my "golden years" I want them to go to exactly the right folks.
I still have the dish that my mother made home made cottage cheese in when we were just children out on the farm. She would clabber milk on the back of the corn cob cook stove, then she would put it in cheese cloth and hang it from the clothes line. When it was completely dry she would bring it in and mix it with whipping cream and put it in the ice box. Yes, ice box. Oh the memories I have from that first eleven years of my life. They are full of stories, both hard times and fun times. The milk pitcher that you see with sunflowers was on our kitchen table three times a day. We always had milk with our meals often with bits of cream floating on the top. (Probably not so good for our arteries, but no one knew about cholesterol in those days.) Right beside it are three refrigerator dishes that mother always put her churned butter in and possibly some leftovers.

My big computer sits right by my china cupboard. I just turned and looked and there in the back behind the "cottage cheese dish" is a silver crumb brush that belonged to my children's Grandmother Grafing. I'm sure it was part of a set at one time.

Nowadays it is so much easier to take dishes in disposable pans and dishes that can just be thrown away. I agree it is much easier, but if that had always been the case, many of my prized possessions wouldn't now be sitting in my everyday and  company only china cupboards for me to remember the special person while I am doing the dishes.
Happy Thanksgiving, folks. Have a wonderful and safe holiday season.