Storytime With Daddy

One of our favorite parts of inbetween Sundays used to be right after breakfast when Daddy would push his chair back from the table and start telling us stories from his childhood. We each had our favorites that we would ask to hear.

Breakfast dishes could wait while we were transported back in time where we could almost see and hear everything as we listened to Daddy's descriptive reliving of his childhood moments.

We lived on a small dairy farm which provided plenty of work for all of us. We milked the cows by hand every morning and night, and during the day we let them out into pasture to graze.


Dad didn't have any fences, saying that with all the boys he has there is no need to build a fence, that they can herd the cows. My brothers and I practically lived outdoors during the summer and herding cows has got to be one of the most monotonous things a boy can do. The cows knew where they could be and most days we each sat at the point assigned to us and watched the clouds float by, we each had a knife and we often whittled while we waited for a cow to stray so we would have an excuse to get up and head her back where she belonged thus breaking the monotony a little bit.


On one such day I was sitting under a big old oak tree. I was tired of watching the clouds drift by. The cows were all laying contently chewing their cuds I sprawled out under the tree and fell asleep. I have no idea how long I was sleeping when I was awakened in the most rude manner. A big Brown Swiss cow had stepped right on my stomach. I screamed, but the cow wouldn't budge. I screamed some more and my brothers came running to see what was wrong. They finally got the cow to step off of me and by now I was sure I was going to die.


I had a few pieces of candy in my pocket that I had been saving for a special occasion, so while one of my brothers ran to get Dad I ate it quickly before I die. It hurt so bad that I passed out and when I woke up I was laying in a hospital bed with nurses beside me. Mom was sitting on a chair beside my bed. She stayed with me until the doctors let me go home.


I didn't work for the rest of the summer and I actually wished I could go out in the pasture where there was nothing but clouds and sunshine, waving grass and cows, instead of being in the house with my six sisters fussing over me.