A Classic

I was a bit blind-sided by this photo tonight. A cousin sent it.

That's my grandpa, mother's side, at the helm of the old Case. I've written about him before but I cannot find a to link it. I may have used him as a model for a character in a story. Note the big chaw in his left cheek. Five Brothers. It came in a paper wrapper and was dry. He kept several packets in a drawer in the kitchen. Took up chew when working labor at the refineries around St. Louis. Or maybe working in the mines when he was fourteen. I can't exactly remember, but I think the former when he was a bit older. Coffee can by his recliner in the living room, doncha know.

The gaggle in the wagon is two of my cousins, my three sisters, my brother and me. Matters not which of the girls are sisters, at least for here. The girls are up front and someone has told them to hang on, an order all dutifully obey. The boys, subconsciously or not are more casual, perhaps to demonstrate a familiarity with that transport. Even our t-shirts said we belonged there.

Yet at that age we did still play in that bed when it lay idle on weekdays and Grandpa was at work. The next summer would find us stacking bales into it. I fetched, Grandpa bucked and my brother arranged. A boy from town was driving the tractor, he popped the clutch and my brother fell from four bales high off the back and onto the ground. He was unhurt. Probably bounced. The hay was put up in the loft in the background.

That barn. We didn't go in there much. No need. I don't think Grandpa did much either except when we had heifers. Even then, for they were fed out back. At the time this picture was taken, the tub for the planned indoor bathroom was still propped against a wall in there, the toilet sitting next to it, and they would remain there for another few years.

The wife asked if my grandpa was wearing socks. He is but those old thin, white cotton socks had a way of rolling down to the top of his boots. In four years time he and I would wear the same size boot and I was thrilled to wear an old pair of his while tromping around the place.