Leaving Texas Part Two
As I had posted previously, we were settling into Beaver Falls, Minnesota. Orlin was working with herds of beef cows and I was making a home in a huge older farm house. I was five months pregnant with Carrie and enjoying each day.
It didn’t take my mom and dad long and they returned with a used automatic washing machine. In the back of their pickup were poles that dad had welded and would sink into the backyard for drying the clothes. An old house that had been added on to, luck would have it there was a door going into the backyard from the bathroom. Most likely that area had been a porch at one time. The electrical would not support a clothes dryer, but at that point, getting the clothes washed was wonderful. There was a catch to the automatic wash machine. It needed to be filled with lengths of garden hoses for the wash cycle as well as the rinse cycle. One hose for hot, one for cold. Who cared! All I had to do was stay on sight so as to not run the tub over. It got the clothes clean.
We had a great summer at Beaver Falls. The house stayed cool under huge shade trees. Life was settling in for us. There was a fair amount of company from Orlin’s family and mine. Orlin’s family would come from Olivia, Hector or Willmar. My family was from Stewart. My two brothers were in high school and they had a blast bringing along tackle and bait to see if there was something to catch in the creek near the farmstead. Weekends, we had a trip to Redwood Falls to look forward to for groceries. We never had to buy meat as that was plentiful from Orlin’s sister’s farm. A trip for groceries also meant a treat at the A&W before we came home.
The only surprise that caught me off guard was a day when I was home alone and a truck with a car carrier came up to the yard. I waited to see if someone would come to the door and when they didn’t, I went out to see what was going on. I don’t even know where they were from, but they came to take the car that Orlin had driven from Texas to Minnesota pulling the U-Haul. The car was being impounded due to lack of payment. There went that beautiful white Mercury that we had gotten shortly before we traveled to Minnesota. When Orlin came home for supper that night with a questioning look as the driveway was empty. All I could do was give him the paperwork that I had been left with. No use crying over spilled milk. There was more to life than a new car. In time when the cattle yard work was done, Orlin and his brother-in-law went to Hector and we had a brand new used car for us. It all worked out.
During the early morning hours of October 17, 1965, Orlin and I headed to the Olivia hospital. We were about to become parents. We were prepared on the home front. My sister Elvera had brought over a bassinet and inside it was fresh clean flannel blankets that Grandma Schafer had made. There was an adequate supply of flannel diapers that mom and I had hemmed when she had visited. Carrie came into the world with ten toes, ten fingers and a set of lungs that to this day cannot be squelched. Within the next hours all felt right with the world. Sometime after the first 24 hours it seemed as if Carrie would need more help than they could give in Olivia. Babies are suppose to pee their diapers totally wet. Carrie had not passed a drop. It could be a serious situation. The Olivia hospital had made arrangements for Carrie to be taken to a metro hospital. My mom and dad were at the foot of my hospital bed ready to take Carrie away. Mom had her bundled up to her nose. It was tense and worrisome. At the last hour, so to speak, her diaper was wet. Extremely wet. The hospital stay was five days, and believe me, Carrie was checked and checked. All was well.
——–to be continued.
On a side bar. We had two inches of wet snow last night. Pretty to look at. Today the mild temps and sun are taking it away. Winter may not want to leave us as yet.