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When I Was A “Kid”

    I remember 60 years ago, when as a child, the joy we experienced at oat threshing time. The huge steam engine with a grain separator and water wagon trailing behind, traveled very slowly from the neighbor's farm, after their threshing job was finished, to the farm of my parents. The engineer would blow the whistle when leaving the neighbors. This was the signal for my younger brother and I to run to the gateway and sit on the bank and wait for the threshing rig to come. We wondered why it did not move any faster, but steam engines were not geared up in those days, as gas tractors are now.

     The machine was called “The Rumley”. It was purchased new by a group of eleven farmers. Each farmer furnished an extra man as that much help was needed to keep the machine operating at full capacity. Each farmer would get his turn at being first, to do his threshing job. When one job was done, they would move on to the next farm, until all were finished.

     It took three men to look after the machines. An engineer to feed the right amount of coal into the fire box of the engine for correct steam pressure, a water man to haul and feed the water into the engine for steam and a separator man to supervise the feeding of the bundles into the machine. All three men helped with the grease jobs. The bundles of grain in the field were loaded on horse drawn wagons and hauled up to the separator. They were pitched into the machine which separated the oats from the straw. The oats would run into a grain wagon and then hauled to and scooped into a granary. The straw was blown on a pile and would be stacked by several men.

     Threshing was hard and dirty work, but much pleasure was found in the resulting companionship. The neighbor ladies got together to prepare the wonderful dinners, afternoon lunches, and suppers that were greatly enjoyed by all. The meals were fit for a King!

               Mrs Carl H. (Minnie Deerberg) Wenndt.

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I REMEMBER WHEN -

. . . . .many salesmen came to our door, among them men that carried with them clothing and dry goods. If the hour was such, they always ate at the table with us.

               Mrs Leroy (Esther Strackbein) Boettger