I have often written about my days as a youth growing up, north of Albert Lea. In those days I always considered myself a country boy, although we lived just a few miles from town. I can remember the farm where my mother grew up which was just a few blocks from our house.
There was a fence for the farm’s pasture that ran up to the west edge of our property. My uncle, Orville Winjum, Mom’s brother, had taken over the farm when my grandpa retired and slowly started selling the land for development. He eventually sold Bert Greengo the land, so that the Green Lea Golf Course could go from 9 to 18 holes.
My uncle was probably not the best farmer around and eventually sold it off in parcels. As a kid, I would hang out at the farm quite a bit during the summer. I always enjoyed seeing the cattle and hogs. I would get excited when my mother would put the leftover table scraps in a galvanized pail and ask me if I would like to ride with to slop the hogs. We would jump into the old Model “A” pickup that we had and drive to the farm.
After I had gotten a little older, my uncle would find odd jobs for me to do, like cleaning calf pens, feeding the animals and baling hay. He was not known for being overly generous, but I didn’t care because I enjoyed being around the farm. He would take me to Wilson’s stock yards whenever he sold some of his hogs. I liked going there with him but the downside of going anywhere with my uncle was that he loved to talk. He would spend an hour (seemed longer) in the office of the hog buyer shooting the breeze which, to me as a kid, was pretty boring.
As I grew older I spent quite a bit of time with my uncle Orv. I would mow lawn for him and, after he got out of the milking business, I would go with him to read meters at gas pumping stations and a couple of days a week we would drive to those stations that were scattered all around the county and as far north as New Richland. New Richland was my favorite place to mow because it sat right next to the Drive-In food stand. He always timed it, so that we were there around noon, so he would buy lunch which consisted of a burger, fries and a malt. To me, this was a real treat because our family never ate out much except for a special occasion, like Mother’s Day.
Working for Uncle Orv gave me just enough money to go to the Fair. This was my primary objective each summer, a paper route, mowing lawns and doing some work for Uncle Orv was mostly about saving for the fair and a little pocket change. I really enjoyed hanging out with my uncle, he made me laugh a lot and later on when he had sold off most of the farm and built a cabin up in Waterville I would ride up to the cabin with him during the week, not to fish, but to mow the lawn. He would talk from the time we left town until we got there. He knew almost everything about every farm along the way because, as he said many times, during the Great Depression he had worked for the Federal Land Bank and had to visit many farms along the way.
In the summer, when I wasn’t at the farm I would be at “the Bridge” that was over the “crick” on Bridge Street where us kids would spend many days exploring wildlife like red winged blackbirds, fish, minnows, tadpoles and turtles. For as long as I can remember, that area of the slough on the East side of Bridge Street was in the State Game Refuge. There was actually a sign stating that it was a State Game Refuge. I knew that you couldn’t hunt the wildlife in that area. This was in the 50’s and my greatest thrill was always just the sighting of a different critter or bird.
This must be the reason that now, as I have grown older, I have put up bird feeders and game cameras at my cabin, not to hunt, but just to see what kind of critters had come to visit our little piece of what I like to call “God’s Country.”
In looking back, not growing up in a family with a lot of money was a good thing. It made me appreciate what I had and has made family values a very big part of my life.
Until next time: Get out and enjoy taking a walk on a trail or visit one of our many are parks and don’t forget our beautiful State Park. There is still an opportunity to wet a line on an area lake while they are still ice-free.
Please show your support for the troops who are serving our country, so that we may enjoy the many freedoms that we have.