Wheat harvest was work and fun, part 2

Last week, I visited with you about, "Wheat harvest was work and fun -- but filled with embarrassing incidents." Today, I will continue to tell of some things about me going to the wheat harvest in Oklahoma and Kansas. I told you about one-waying for my Uncle near Henessey, Okla. Since then, a question has been asked about what model of John Deere I used. It was a 1931 or 1932 Model D. It was cranked by turning the fly wheel. It was an interesting tractor and a challenge to drive for a full day -- early morning to sundown.

This took place in 1952 -- more than a half century ago. Things were different then, even wheat harvest.

After one-waying for my Uncle Coe, I went with them to Kansas to harvest wheat.

My cousin, Floyd Hawk, worked for his dad, Coe. I worked for Uncle Coe's friend and neighbor, Ehiaim Williams. Last week, I told you that we cut wheat for a family ineat Leota, Kan. They had three boys about Floyd and my age and a little older and one girl still in high school. That family was fun and we were all laughing about something at each meal and doing a lot of teasing.

One hot day, after working all day, I was hot and dirty. I really needed to take a bath. Floyd and I asked them if it was OK for us to take a bath in the livestock tank. The water was just right and it was inviting. They told us, yes that would be fine. So Floyd and I got ready to get in the tank and I went in first -- should have had Floyd to go first. I stepped in and immediately sat down. I sat in fresh tar -- they had only recently tarred the tank. I had tar on the bottom of my feet and on my body where I sat down.

As you can guess, it did not wash off. I had to get out -- to get some fuel to take the tar off. Floyd was getting a big laugh out of it and so were the other boys. I only found out recently that those boys knew what was going to happen. That was another subject for discussion at the meals -- to my embarrassment.

After cutting the wheat near Leota, we moved to a family near Bird City, Kan. That area is the coldest part of the state during the winters. We did not have the young people there to joke with as we had previously. They were an older couple with a young girl working for them. As I recall, we moved our cots into their basement and that is where we slept. The thing I remember the most up there was a cold day on July 4. Most of the days were extremely hot, but it got cold on that day. We did not take any jackets and it was cold -- all the stores in town were closed and we could not buy any jackets.

The next morning as soon as we could, we went into town and bought jackets.

The jacket felt good. I wore that jacket for several years.

One Sunday, Floyd and I went to church. We overheard some girls talking.

One of them referred to me as being pretty. You know she did not have good taste.

Another one of them referred to Floyd saying he is prettier.

The girl working for the family was not the most attractive nor socially adjusted.

After that event, during a meal Floyd referred to me as being pretty. I told them that the other girl said that Floyd was prettier. The girl working for the family, spoke up and said, "I do not think so."

Floyd got a big laugh out of that, so did I -- out of embarrassment.

To this day we laugh about that. He will say to me, "You are pretty." My reply is, "You are prettier." His response will always quote the hired girl, "I do not think so."

I had never herd the term of a boy being pretty before. I will assure you that Floyd Ray is prettier.

After harvesting the wheat at Bird City, we went up in the Dakotas to look for other places to harvest wheat. I tend to believe that we left the equipment there and rode in Floyd's car. He thinks that we took the equipment up there. We did not find any job and returned to Oklahoma. We stopped by to see the family at Leota on the way back. Again, it was hot traveling back.

We were on our way back, so I did not write home, I would soon be there.

When we got to Oklahoma, Uncle Coe was to take me to Enid to catch a bus. I wanted to get home -- still, I did not write home to anyone.

In those days, it was a challenge to call on the country crank phones on a party line. When long distance calls were made, it seemed expensive for the first three minutes. After that it cost for each additional minute, so the attempt was made to talk for only three minutes or less. It's far different now, when the long distances rates are often low or in some cases free. Nowadays no one gives much thought to making a long distace call.

This has been a major change since the 50s.

When we were in Enid or on the way, Uncle Coe announced they were going to go up to our place in about a week, if I wanted to wait. I did.

Still, I did not write or make a call -- I could have called collect and the folks by this time would be happy to accept the charges.

We finally went to my home. It is the Hawk family tradition to go see someone and not announce ahead that they were coming. Mom was always glad to have company and was always a good host.

When I finally got home, they were glad to see me and had been wondering about me. They were concerned. I knew that I was OK and there wasn't anything to worry about.

The remainder of the summer I went to Kansas City to stay with Uncle Carl Hawk and his family and worked in construction.

Going to wheat harvest provided me a good experience. Wheat harvest was work and fun -- but filled with embarrassing incidents.