This one has been rollin' around in my noggin' for some time now. This is one of those posts you may want to take "nature break" now, grab your favourite beverage, prop your feet up - cuz we're liable to be here awhile.
Singer/songwriter Joe Diffie debuted "Home" back in 1990 and it has been my "anthem" ever since. The guitars, dobros, gentle rhythm and great vocal harmonies blend together to make "one hallmark" of a country song.
"Home" for me wasn't literally the place where I resided, but a very special place that lie in my past. When I was a child, it was a magical place; when I was a young teenager it was a place of warmth and love. "Home" was a 240 or so acre farm my grandparents owned near Newkirk, Kay County, Oklahoma. There were three different livestock ponds, hay meadows, wheat fields, cattle pens, barns, chicken coops, an out-house, yes I said out-house and yes I did use it, and a junk yard complete with old combines, 1940s autobmobiles, old abandoned farm implements, etc (a world full for exploration for a young, inquisitive mind). There were cows to milk, calves to feed, hogs to slop, yards to mow, ridin' on the tractor for endless hours while Grandpa plowed or disced, cows to milk again, beans to snap, taters to dig, chickens to kill and prepare, weldin' to do, feed to scoop, and did I mention-cows to milk.
What one of us grandkids couldn't think of to get into, well it was a sure bet that another could. I think one of the most memorable moments was one afternoon a group of five or six of us was lookin' for somethin to get into and sure enough that's just what we did. Now, remember I told you earlier there was always cows to milk? Well, where there's cows there always....yep....you guessed it....cow pies! Now I don't zactly recollect whose bright idea it was but we found ourselves out in the corrall where the cows gather before milking and someone picked up stick and... watch out -here's where it gets messy - they stuck it into one of those fresh cow pies and flung it at someone! Well, that was all it took....the fight was on! Everyone was grabbin' sticks and started flingin cow manure everyhwere. My brother Mike got hit in the ear! I think the grown ups made us git into the stock tank to wash most of the manure off before comin into the house. That was probably 40 years ago and we still bring it up at family reunions to this day!
In the attached video, someone is drivin around shooting the local scenery. Well, it might as well have been shot from my Grandpa's 1951 Studebaker pickup truck! I think over one winter he pulled it into the barn and repainted it red, white and gold if I recall. We started callin it the "Coke" truck. I am sure that if that old truck were around today and it could talk it would have some tall tales to tell.
Also in the lyrics of the song it talks about.... "the feel of a muddy role between your toes". Well, I remember a bunch of us always like to go down the "East" pond and go for a swim. Yup, I remember all too well the "feel of a muddy role between my toes". Of course, we always had to keep a wary eye out for "rattlers" and water moccassins but no one every got bit. My family and I were down at the East pond fishin one time and I thought I'd walk around to the other side where my Mom was "wettin' a hook", as I was walkin' around the waters edge I wasn't payin close attention and all of the sudden I looked down just as I was takin another step, I almost stepped on a water moccassin curled up right by the water's edge. Well I let out a war hoop and nearly peed my pants and the snake shot straight into the water. I started bawlin and carryin on! They sent me up to the house, I guess cause of all the racket I was makin after being scared spitless!
Not much left of "the ole place" these days except the milk barn my Grandpa built with his own hands back about 1969. I am told he didn't have a blueprint or any plans - 'cept in his head. It was a wondrous building back in that day! Just a few years ago I made a friend back down near Joplin and he had milk cows. I'd visit him every now and then and when I walk into his milkbarn, it had the ole smells of milk, feed, manure and must that my Grandpa's barn did and instantly - I was back "Home" again. Memories are a powerful thing!
They sold the "old Home place" back in about 1989 and it was like an "era" came to an end. I believe there had always been a Graham farm of some kind or another since the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1907. Both of my Great Grandfathers were in the Land Rush! But I've got some old milk cans, steel wagon wheels, milk strainer and a few other mementos that I wouldn't take anything for 'em. To me...they're priceless!
I wish I could go back but I can't. But every and then, I catch a whiff of somethin...man, that smells just like Grandma's fried chicken, bread bakin' in the oven, or a wheat field just after a rain, freshly cut alfalfa... and instantly it takes me back and.....I'm "Home" again.
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