The Frontier Kid

I believe I should now move on to the next phase of my life.

I was in the 10th grade and decided to quit school due to loosing almost two years, and the fact I was 14 years old and had no money to spend on anything. Although my folks had always been good to Ellen and I, and provided us with the bare necessities of life, it wasn't enough for either of us. Ellen was 16, and left home to live with my sister Grace, who had a good job at Postum. At first, I started working on neighbors' farms for 10 ¢ an hour during the spring and summer. In the fall and winter, I hunted and trapped coon, skunk, mink, and muskrats. The first year, I made enough money to buy a Model T Ford for $20. It was a lot different than the horse and buggy I was used to. About the second time I was cranking it, I broke my arm! A Model T at that time would backlash unless you held your thumb just right around the crank. Well, I wasn't used to it, of course, and it broke my right arm.

I might mention here that Dad did keep two workhorses and a buggy horse. The horse that we had was named Tony, and actually he was a pacer horse that had run in the Hillsdale County Fair several times. I don't know where my dad got him, but he bought him for a buggy horse. I remember earlier my folks taking us to the Hillsdale County Fair. It was 10 miles from home. It took a little over two hours to get there. My seat was on the box on the back of the buggy. However, I wasn't on it much as I would jump off and run ahead of the horse most of the way. Incidentally, we each had 50 ¢ to spend. We always had a good time anyway, as we never had that much money to spend all year. Ellen, of course, was 6 years older than I was, but she didn't know how to drive a horse and buggy. So, many times I would take her to Frontier and the horse was never put into a walk. He was hit on the rump to make him go as fast as he could travel. When we arrived at the United Brethren Church in Frontier, instead of turning the corner to go to town, we would turn him into the church yard and run him around the church several times, with Ellen screaming her head off and threatening to tell my mother when we got home. Of course, there was always someone who would see me doing these things. This someone was an old gal that everyone in Frontier knew, Maggie Mills. She would call my mother and tell on me. Sometimes, I would be grounded for this, but soon it would blow over and I would be right back having fun again.

In the summertime, I was sent down to Silver Creek several times a week to take a bath. However, in the wintertime, my mother would fill a big copper boiler with warm water and make me get into it and stand over me until I would wash every part of my body, especially behind the ears.