Root Jumper Read Online Free PDF Page A

would arrange to have a picnic with the kids. This picnic usually consisted of boiled eggs, tomatoes, biscuits and apple butter.
    My parents paid for their farm during this period. I don’t know how they did it, but I know we worked from daylight to sundown with every one of us having chores to do. We saved every little thing. Nothing was ever thrown away. If there were any food scraps, they were fed to the animals. We always raised a big garden. We grew potatoes and onions that lasted all winter. We also raised corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, cabbage, peppers, and beets. We made pickles from cucumbers, kraut from cabbage, and relishes from various mixtures. Everything was pickled, canned, or dried. This food from the garden was supplemented with meat from wild animals such as rabbits, squirrels grouse, quail, fish, and turtles from the creek.
    I remember the 410 shotgun that stood in the corner of the kitchen. My brothers loved to hunt, but they got only one shell each. My dad would tell them to be sure to bring back something with that shell. Occasionally they didn’t get anything, but the shell came back to be put in the shell box for the next time. My brothers were excellent hunters with the “gun.”
    I remember my mother giving a man a half gallon jar of canned tomatoes to take to his family. He had to cross over our hill to get to his home. Later, when we were out after the cattle, we found the empty jar. My mother said that he must have been very hungry to have eaten a half gallon of tomatoes. I just thought about his family that didn’t get any.
    There was a certain amount of stealing that went on during this time. When people stole from us, my dad would say, “I would probably steal too if my family was hungry.” I remember in later years talking to a man who held it against his mother for stealing a can of lard. I told this man, “You’re sick in the head to hold that against your mother. She was probably just trying to keep you alive!”
    Those were hard times, but there were good times too. We were very close and took care of each other. I remember the pictures of the bread lines and the soup kitchens. We couldn’t afford a newspaper, but my mother’s sister always saved their newspapers for us. We kids especially loved the “funnies” from the newspapers. I very seldom saw a dollar bill. I always thought the dollar looked so magnificent with its special green color. I still love to look at paper money. If I could, I would take all the money I have, put it in “greenbacks,” and store it behind a glass wall so I could look at it.
    One day, coming home from the grocery store, I found a folded up one dollar bill. I ran the rest of the way home, bursting through the kitchen door shouting, “Mom! Mom! Look what I found!” My mother looked it over and said, “Where did you find this?” I explained that I had found it in the road and that I had picked it up. She said that we couldn’t use it until we tried to find out who had dropped it near the grocery store. No one ever did, and I was allowed to keep the money.
    I knew exactly where I was going to spend this money. There was a brown and tan pair of shoes in Lillian Gebhardt’s grocery store. I had been dreaming about those shoes. The only problem was that the shoes cost two dollars. Where was I going to get that extra dollar? I had four chickens that my mother had given me as babies which I had raised. I gathered up the chickens and took them to the store. Lillian said she would trade me the pair of shoes for the chickens and the dollar. However, she tried to discourage me from buying those shoes, but I persisted. Nothing would satisfy me but those brown shoes, and I proudly wore them home. A few weeks later, I wore my brown shoes, and they got wet. The brown color began to fade. Underneath the brown color the shoes were really white. I got so mad that I threw them away and walked home barefooted.
    My mother made most of our clothes. She