Time change brings back cold memories

By the time this article comes out, our time will have changed back to what is supposed to be the right time. Daylight savings time will be out of the picture until March of next year.

When we were kids and fall and winter came around, it didn’t matter when dark came. There was a certain amount of chores that had to be done in the light or dark. When it seemed to be the coldest evenings, dark came early.

As soon as we changed from our school clothes to our work duds, we headed outside. In September we still had fields of corn to gather and I did hate that job. I always got the “down row” which was the ones the horses pulled the wagon over. That pushed the dried corn stalks to the ground and that meant the corn was on the ground. Bending over for row after row was downright hard to do. Scorpions, or stinging lizards as we called them, really like the dried corn and when one of them popped any one of the fingers, it was not something you forgot soon. The pain was past handling.

The temperatures dropped in the winter and many days, it was very cold by the end of the day. That made no difference. Animals had to be fed and we always had cows, hogs, a horse and chickens that were hungry. Hay for the cattle was strewn on a little hill and the north wind always kept us company. The year we got our senior rings, I was in a hurry to start and never thought about cold hands. One load of hay that I pitched took my ring and it was never seen again.

I’ve heard lots of folks declare Daylights Savings Time should stay all year long. On those short winter days, I’m very thankful there are no animals that must be fed at our place.

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About town, Jack Gainer was buying groceries; Beamon and I saw Melissa Phillips, Nadine Braden and her daughter Paige Hooks and Keith Swearingen, who was telling us about his and grandson Colby Allen’s wreck in Colmesneil. Neither was hurt but he said he didn’t know an old man could be sore in so many places. A man under the influence of too much alcohol ran into them.

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Sarah Harris was running errands for her mom Melinda at the beauty shop and played taxi to her grandmother Laura Ann Renfro after her car refused to run anymore. Bertie Walker and Bea Beard have further to drive than I do and the rain pursued all of us.

* * * Beamon and I made a trip to Dallas to take his brother Wesley to Baylor Hospital. He was scheduled to have bypass surgery and a heart valve fixed. He had to be there to check in at 5 in the morning and if you’ve never seen Baylor Hospital, it is something to behold. There’s a different building for anything that ails you. We must have walked 50 miles after we got into the cardiac building. I did not see very many overweight working people and I certainly know why. Believe me it was equal to a bunch of bees constantly moving.

We encountered doctors, male and female nurses, cleaning folks, interns, students (several groups of them) and that was before we found the cafeteria. It was busy and that one place took lots of folks to make meals happen. Volunteers visited with us before Wesley was brought to recovery.

It is gratifying to know that heart surgery has come a long way. What used to be unusual and a big deal is now as common as having one’s appendix taken out. Usually a hospital stay is not long and Wesley came home with very few restrictions of what he could or could not do.

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With woods on one side of our place and at the back, we know there are deer that live in the area. Late in the evening they come out and eat ours and Sharon Berry’s grass. She has an acorn tree which was loaded this year and I discovered a young buck when he found the acorns. The first evening I saw him he ate like he was starving. It took a while to decide if he was a boy or girl but Beamon and I realized he had four points so I’ve nicknamed him “the little boy.” Sometimes there will be two does with him; one evening there were two does and a half grown one helping eat the acorns. Several evenings he drew a crowd as folks realized he was so close to the road and the ditch had pickups lined up to check him out. One evening he brought a pretty good sized herd with him. The newcomers were too nervous with all the traffic going down our road so they ran away quite quickly.

The animals have a path across our front yard over to Sharon’s yard and then into her pasture. When her little dogs are outside they watch the deer and the deer watch them but don’t seem to be afraid. When hunting season begins, I wonder if they will be more afraid. Creatures might realize that the laws protect them now.