Lambs, Baby Bottles, & Apple Blossoms

When my sister & I were able to walk, we entertained ourselves in the house on the hill.  The hillside was our play yard.  We made playhouses & mud pies, chased the farm animals, & provided some help with the chores.  I say “some help” because, at our age, we got in the way more than helped.

We had cows, pigs, sheep & chickens.  Occasionally a little lamb would need to be bottle-fed & my grandfather would let us hold the bottle while the baby lamb ate.

The one farm rule was that my sister & I were not allowed to name the animals or treat them as pets because one day, they could end up on the table as our meal.  

My sister was 18 months older, but it took her much longer to give up her baby bottle finally.  Maybe she was pretending to be a lamb.  Plastic had yet to hit the store shelves, so she carried that glass bottle everywhere.  One day we were outside playing & she dropped her bottle; it hit a rock & broke into pieces.  She just calmly looked at it & said, “it’s gone,” & that was the end of her bottle craze.

On another day, we decided we wanted to get a bouquet for grandmother.  The only thing blooming at the time was the apple trees.  We went into the orchard to get some blooms & of course, the blossoming tree limbs were above our heads.  I don’t recall exactly whose brilliant idea it was, but my sister would stand under the tree & catch the blooms that I would knock off with a rock.  I threw several stones, but no flowers came down.  Thinking my ammunition was too small, I picked up a giant rock and whirled it up into the tree & it came down on my sister’s head, opening up a gash in her scalp.  Blood was everywhere.  We went running back to the house & our good deed & intent were now overshadowed by grandmother’s anger & the need to get her wound cleaned & tended to.  Eventually, she healed but had a large scar on her scalp & didn’t mind reminding me from time to time of who put it there.

Although we didn’t have a ton of toys or organized play dates with other kids, we were never bored.  We had a wholesome environment where imagination was our friend in figuring out things to do.  I still lean on that imagination today to stay engaged & occupied with things to do.  This girl may not be on the farm, but the farm is still in the girl.