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When I was a young lad of about 7, my family lived in Des
Moines Iowa. The war was over and Dad had come home from
the Air Force. It was 1949 or 1950. I don??™t remember what
Dad's job was at the time, but I do remember 3 things. My
brother David was about 4 years old, we had a brand new
refrigerator, and we had a dog named Skippy. Skippy was
mostly collie, but had some other breeds thrown in just for
good measure.
Skippy was a very protective dog and
would never let anyone hurt Dave or me. When we needed a
spanking (corporal punishment was ???in??? in those days), Mom
or Dad had to put Skippy outside. Otherwise he would
threaten them with a menacing growl and bared teeth. He was
protecting us even from our parents, I guess.
I thought the refrigerator was ???cool??™,
because it was one of the first ones we ever had. We had
lived on farms where there was no electricity to the house,
so ice boxes were used. Therefore, refrigerators were ???way
cool??? to us. And it was fully stocked, which was rare.
One afternoon when I came home from
school, Mom told me to get some things together. We were
going for a ride. Dad had already put some things in the
car and Dave was ready to go. I asked where we were going
and Dad said, ???Just for a ride.???
I gathered a few snack items, a
favorite toy, and called Skippy.
Mom said we wouldn??™t be bringing Skippy
on our ride because there wouldn??™t be room for him in the
car.
I jumped into the back seat with Dave
and we were surrounded by pillows, bags, and a box or two.
It was quite a lot of stuff for a ride, I thought. Mom and
Dad were, of course, in the front seat.
Dave and I waved goodbye to Skippy who
was wagging his tail happily, and we pulled away.
The afternoon became dusk, and then
night surrounded us. Still, we drove on. Dave and I both
fell asleep. Sometimes we would be almost, but not quite,
awakened by the noise of a passing truck. ???
Long ride???, I thought.
Eventually, we stopped in a small
town. Mom stayed in the car with us while Dad got out to go
into a beer joint. Today we call them pubs or taverns, but
in those days, they were ???beer joints???.
I asked where we were and why we had
stopped. Mom said we were in Sherburn, Minnesota.
When we left Des Moines, Dad drove
north. He kept driving north until the car ran out of gas
and he ran out of money. That put us in the small Minnesota
town, late at night.
Dad, who was quite a beer drinker, had
gone into the bar to see what work might be available. Mom
and Dad had planned for us to spend the night in the car.
Dave and I dozed.
A short time later, Dad came out of the
beer joint and announced that he had a new job and a place
to live. Dad was going to be a farmer. As a hired hand, he
would be paid a salary, given a house to live in, and would
get a quarter of beef and half a hog each ear. We got a
dollar??™s worth of gas and headed into the country.
We arrived at an old farm house and Mom
said this would be our new home.
???What about Skippy????
???He??™ll be fine. The neighbors will
take him in.???
???What about that new refrigerator????
???The finance company will come and get
it.??? (I didn??™t know what a finance company was)
???What about school????
???You??™ll have a new school and make new
friends.???
What about??¦??¦??¦??¦??¦.. well, you get the
idea.
The old farm house had no electricity
and no running water. It was empty, except for an old
mattress that was left on the floor of one of the bedrooms.
We all slept together, laying cross-wise on that bare
mattress that night.
The next morning, we found a couple of
empty 30 gallon barrels and an old wooden door. We laid the
door across the two barrels and voila! ??“ a dinner table. 5
gallon pails were used as chairs.
Orange crates were stood on end and mom
made little ???curtains??™ for them. They became end tables.
Somewhere, dad found an old couch and a couple of metal beds
with wire springs. We were all set. We were farmers!
It took years for Dave and I to forgive
Dad for leaving Skippy behind. And what about that brand
new refrigerator? Why would we just leave everything and
drive to nowhere in particular?
When I was old enough to understand,
Mom explained it. They were deeply in debt and Dad had lost
his job. There was no one to turn to for financial
assistance and the only thing they could think of was to
disappear and start a new life. Those were the days before
credit cards, credit counseling, credit bureaus, and the
like. It was possible to just run away and no one would
ever catch up with you. So we ran away. We started over.
I still wonder about Skippy though.
?© 2004 by Don Carroll
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Blessings to you today
Bob Johnston
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