WHEN THE FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF TODAY WERE BOYS AND GIRLS
We have spoken of the men and the women who broke the ground and
prepared the way for the prosperity and comforts we enjoy today. It
would be unfair not to mention the part which the boys and girls also
bore in this struggle with raw nature, poverty and many
discouragements. In the early spring, as soon as seeding was well
under way, the boys--and often, when there was no available boy on the
place, the girls--had to keep vigilant watch of the cattle, and this
thruout the long summer until the corn was all out. There were no
"pastures" or wire fences in the early eighties. This meant for most
boys that, either at home or away from home, they had to be out on the
prairie with the cattle beginning with early spring and ending late in
the fall, from early morning until night, rain or shine, and not even
a Sunday off, or at least very seldom. The food we carried for our
dinners would, of course, get mussed, stale and unpalatable, being
carried around all day and exposed to the hot sun. The water, or
whatever we carried to drink, would become even less palatable and
often scarce. Often in our extreme thirst we would drink out of the
sloughs or stagnant lake beds. Then in the spring and fall we would
frequently have a cold, drizzling rain continuing all day and often
soaking us to the skin as there was no shelter, and raincoats were
almost unknown. Every step we would take thru the wet grass the water
would churn in our shoes and we had to keep going, for the cattle were
generally restless at such times and insisted on starting off in
directions where lay the plowed land or hayland which must be guarded.
Where there was no boy in the family, girls had to do this job, for
the cattle had to be herded. For them, as can readily be seen, this
job was even more difficult than for the boys, being impeded in their
chase after the cattle by their skirts dragging in the tall, wet
grass. Not strange that some of them sacrificed their health and
future in this task. Of course, when, as in the case of most girls,
they were at home, they would generally be relieved for at least part
of the day. But even half a day was long under those conditions.
But let it not be inferred that we boys, and the girls, too, had no
good times during those long summer days. The sun shone anyway most of
the time, and we made the most of our opportunities while the sun
shone. We boys hunted gophers, digging them out or drowning them out
if near a pond; we dug Indian turnips in the spring and picked grapes,
plums and berries in their season if we could get to them; built stone
houses or caves; waded or swam in the sloughs or creeks; fished;
fought snakes and skunks and sometimes one another. We traded jack
knives, which were our chief valuables and consequently a standard
medium of exchange; we braided long, long whips made from old boot
legs or even willow bark; we broke young steers to ride on, at least
attempted to, and sometimes they in turn nearly broke our necks by
bucking and throwing us off; we concocted special modes of terrible
punishment for exasperatingly troublesome members of our flocks. Much
of the time, however, we could not get together or, as we said, "herd
together". Then time passed more slowly and we had lots of time to
think and even to brood over our job, which we considered about the
worst there was in the world. However, with all its drudgery and
sometimes loneliness and hardship, our job was a good preparation for
the jobs that lay ahead of us.