Fairs, auctions, cooking and cleaning and fixing were all the orders of the day here. I may have worked outside the home but those at home worked hard, some of them harder than others and towards the end it was all on Sue's shoulders. How she ever managed is beyond me. If I'd known it had gotten that bad there was nothing I could have done anyway. I was miles away with no money and no way to help.
I never knew the thrill of chickens. I hated cleaning up after them. I hated them pecking at me. I hated ducks too.
Mom got a thrill out of different varieties of chickens. She like big ones and tiny ones. She didn't care if they laid white eggs or brown ones but the ones that laid the greenish blue was she was really crazy about. I think it was a breed called aracauna. I probably spelled that wrong. We had some in Kingsbury but I don't think she ever had chickens in Argyle.
It didn't mean that Dick Taylor's didn't wander over though. They probably knew the vegetable scraps were better at our house.
There was that big turkey of Taylors. He was a troublemaker of sorts. I didn't mind that he'd craped in the Winnebago. That, I loved. But his constant crapping in the door yard became a problem.
I can't swear to this but I heard that one day mom took a 22 and shot at him to scare him away. I "think" she hit him. I also heard that Taylor was moaning that he found his turkey up on the hill dead. He thought the wild dogs got to it because one of its legs was gone.... Mom just kept her mouth shut.
She didn't like cops and yet at every fair she sought them out. I don't know why. Maybe it was that old thing about keeping your enemies close? She would sound them out on what ever laws she thought were being broken and most of them were in Argyle.
It was a dry town and still is and yet the biggest drunks live in Argyle. I heard it hasn't changed much. They still buy the booze in Fort Edward and either get drunk there and drive home drunk or they drink it on the way home littering the sides of the road with cans and bottles.
She still didn't want her photo taken. If Mom took it, she probably told Sue she was just going to get the chicken....
Mom and Dad at an auction. Dad's wearing the beard he had to grow or get fined for not having one.
I'm not sure if she was canning something or cooking something or both or maybe just doing dishes.
Mom and Sue deciding how to fix something or seeing if they could fix it. I took it, I think but it doesn't mean I remember. Those boards are across the window because every time Bernie saw someone he would try to claw through the window to get at them. If not Bernie one of the later dogs. I think they always had a dog or a cat. I don't ever remember being without one. But I could have done without chickens, easily.
The pinto lasted a number of years. I didn't like driving it. I don't think I told this one but I may have so forgive me if its a repeat.
Mom and Dad had taken my bigger car up to some place up in the mountains. I think it was a sale. Some place with the name of a Gull in it, I think. They were almost there and the engine overheated. The fan somehow went through the radiator messing it all up good. So they were stuck up there with no way to get home.
Dad knew he could get someone to haul my dead car home in a day or so but they needed rescuing now so I had to drive the Pinto. I wasn't even sure where I was going but Sue knew.
We started out. It took us a few minutes just to get out of the yard. I'd never driven a car with standard. I didn't know how to clutch except what I'd learned in driver ed and we never practiced it.
The worst thing happened when I got to the top of this real steep hill and the darn light turned red and I had to stop. I had one heck of a time getting it to go forward without it sliding back into the car behind me first. I did learn to drive it but it was always touch and go if I'd remember how.
Years later I had to drive a standard Uhaul from Ohio to NY. It was pretty bad just leaving the lot. If that wasn't bad enough, I was coming down a hill and the window was open with the wind blowing so at first I didn't hear the motor quit.
It didn't quit on its own. Tommy was in his "car seat" in the front beside me. He was just far enough down in the seat that he could manage to reach forward with his foot and I swear to God he did this! He turned the key off.
It took me a bit to figure this out. I had no idea he could even reach that far.
Then I was at the bottom of the hill and the opposite side was another uphill climb. It was terrible. I was literally crawling up that hill about five or ten miles an hour. Not fun!