| Half Moon Saga |
| I grew up in the country, on a farm. We had all the conveniences, running water, electricity, bathroom, etc. all the conveniences that is, of a home circa 1912! Had running water in the kitchen, electricity was actually circa the early 50’s, and the bathroom was five feet from a cornfield. Have to give my dad credit; he was smart enough to make sure the cows were in the field on the other side of the house. Ok, so the home place wasn’t ultra modern, but it was functional. It had a roof, and walls. Why, we even had an aisle, so to speak, to the necessary room. Course, no one called it that. Most folks just called it a path. But it was a path well followed. Heck, we had it bettern’ most city folk. If the ‘room’ was busy, we had five acres of field just a few feet away. We didn’t always plant corn, and the years we planted beans or let the field grow for hay, was a little trickier to do this. When it was decent weather, why this little trip down the aisle could be right educational. Dad sold seed corn, so unlike most folk we didn’t have seed catalogs to deal with. Actually, we were a little on the strange side, cause we didn’t even have the catalogs at all. Got lots of learning with Reader’s Digest and Woman’s day. Heck, no outdoor facility was complete without good dual purpose reading material. Dual purpose as in the city folk usage of reading or the country version as a replacement for Charmin. On days of high humidity or high heat, there was two ways to stay cool. We could take some of the reading material and get our daily exercise, or we could leave the door open. This last choice was not really the most desirable though. It gets downright embarrassing to have the chickens walk by, point their wings and you and laugh. Come the cooler months, like winter, and it is quite different! I don’t know about other folks, but we didn’t have a heater in our little ‘convenience room’. These little trips are quicker fer one thing. It is the country way of learning not to put your tongue on anything metal. Now problems can pop up, for example you have spent the whole day downing a few pots of coffee to stay warm. Along about nine o’clock it catches up with ya, and you have no choice. Throwing caution to the wind, you grab a coat and dash out the door. “darn, knew I forgot something at the store, icemelt”, runs through your head as you skate down the aisle and grab for, but miss, the door handle. Now ice doesn’t stick to cornstalks all that well, so there is a natural braking system here. The other type of outdoor emergency is a little different. For one thing, you have to be sure your aim is good and that you catch the handle. And prior to the actual trip, you open the door and shout, "Look out cows, look out ducks, it is twenty below and this trip sucks" |