The snow is melting pretty quickly now… and we’re smack in the middle of spring break, too. Today we’re off to the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair… the 100th edition. (I’m linking to the website without even complaining about all the broken bits, or the fact that I had to edit fix up their logo image before I was able to use it even for a blog post… I guess some people care more about their blogs than others do about their main business websites.) Just a day trip to Brandon for the event, should be fun for the kids. All four of us, that is. ;^) The kids (the two junior ones) are really looking forward to the Superdogs. Me, maybe the heavy horses… my grandfather was hauling logs out of the bush with a team of horses when he was in his teens, and I remember him showing me when he was in his late 70s some of the same harness had used at the time. He still used it, and I guess my ancestors aren’t so long off the farm that I don’t appreciate a good show of workhorses. History matters, and I have a theory that history matters more to us the older we get. Story is important. Anyone else have stories or memories of grandparents on the farm?
Not grandparents, but parents. I grew up on a farm in the southern
United States. We grew tobacco and produce. Had 26 cats and one
dog. Had a mule, not a horse, which was replaced by a tractor.
Mother told the story of the first time my father used his tractor
to plow a field. When he got to the end of the row, he kept going
yelling “Whoa!”
Beth,
I should have said parents too, sorry — but what a great picture!
I’ve come to love the old stories and pictures of things that the pioneers had done. My grandfather told us about the time he and his friend decided to build an airplane… they’d seen one fly overhead once. But they built one! He also showed us an old photo of some other ancestor that had kept a pet bear, had it tied on a chain like a dog.
Yesterday at the fair I spent some time in the “Heritage Room” which was pretty cool. They had an old photo with accompanying story of someone who had broken a team of moose to pull a wagon. They took them in the parade and even won a race with them.