IT TAKES A LIFETIME

STILL THERE...

...THE ODE FARMHOUSE, CIRCA 1920-25

THE BREWERS TAKE THE FIELD...

BUT THE FAMOUS RACING SAUSAGES ARE THE STARS

Monday, 7:30 AM  32 degrees F at the ferry dock, 26 on the back porch.  Wind WNW, blustery.  the sky is mostly cloudy with some high overcast.  The humidity is 66%.  The barometer reads 29.82" and is  rising sharply, predicting better weather ahead.
  Buddy is still at the kennel, I will pick him up later.  The bear has been back and has absconded with the suet log and the peanut bar I had left hanging on the porch.

   Our trip to Milwaukee was a great success.  Our niece's wedding was a small but very nice event;  we had a great time at the Milwaukee Brewers v Houston game (even though Milwaukee lost), and we visited an elderly cousin who took the time and effort to show us the farmhouse that she was born in, that my father and her father and mother owned from 1920 to 1925.

   I vaguely remember my father driving past the place with me once, but I could not remember at all where it was.  My father and his brother bought the farm in 1920. My uncle was married, and he and my Aunt Helen had three children born to them in that house.  They lost their place in the farm depression that preceded the Great Depression. 

   Deeply in debt, they worked for years to pay off the bank.  During those years on the farm, my father also had a hunting accident in which he lost the function of his left arm and hand.  Bad years, those.  But he never talked about them, and I never heard him complain.  He was always a positive, cheerful man.

   The farmhouse today has been modernized, and a three-car garage added.  The barn and outbuildings are gone, and the farm fields have sprouted houses.  But the essence of the place is still there. It stands on a hill, with a marsh below to the west and the old farm road winding past.  

   It takes a lifetime for children to get to know their parents, and  even then only if they are very, very lucky.