Farming…a family affair Summer time and Harvest time at the Wyly farm

When I think of summer back in the early 1960’s, I remember our move from the “old place” to the new house. We were so excited because we had a new house and a baby brother on the way. Gay was in the 6th grade, I was in the first grade with Mrs. Benger, and Gerall was 5.
We got new roller skates and skated up and down the hall of the new house. I have never figured out how mother, Emma Pope Wyly, could stand that, but we had a ball, zipping up and down that hall. Later Dad, Bob Wyly, built a barn and we had a really neat skating rink and basketball court until the farm machinery began invading “our” space. Ha
The following summer, Daddy and Mama decided it was time for us kids to learn to work, so Gerall was taught to drive the tractor at age 6 and us girls were given a stick with a shiny bent end on it called a chopping hoe.
Off to the field we went and for the first hour we thought it was great fun. Soon our spirits waned and the sweat began. This was “work”. We had helped hoe weeds from the garden before, but this was a very big 14 acres we were working on.
The weeds were big, and it wasn’t long till we three toughened a little and began to entertain ourselves by singing a little harmony and pretending we were dentists and the weeds were teeth in the giants mouth and we had to pull and cut them out! We would wish that the irrigation well was pumping Coca-Cola.
Mother would come and work with us and Criss would toddle around and play in the dirt, I remember them making him a little bitty hoe before he was very old. Those were hard working days, not much foolin’ around, just pure, long hard work. Mother was fast and would leave us in the dust, then turn around and catch us up over and over again.
No, there were no couch potatoes in the summertime around our house. We always had work to do and needless to say, school days looked pretty good to us girls by the time Fall came. Think Gerall and Criss would have liked to keep on working on the farm.
Harvest time was filled with mixed emotions, exciting, fearful of the weather, hectic and tiring. I remember wheat harvest the best.
It was Gay and my job to help move the machinery and help Mother take meals to the field for the harvesters. Gerall and Criss would always help Daddy, they would leave early in the morning as soon as it was dry enough to get in the fields and stay out very late when possible.
Before the boys were old enough to drive the truck to the elevator, Mother would drive the truck.
At home, we would start early baking chocolate chip cookies and frying chicken or chicken fried steak or whatever we had and getting mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans from the garden ready to take out to them. Loading it up in the car with plates, iced tea and glasses, and bowls of food.
The least favorite part to me was coming home with the dusty dirty dishes and leftovers if any and having to unload the car and do dishes.
Dad didn’t think anyone should plan a reunion or wedding or anything in June if they wanted us to get to come! That was harvest time!
We could tell how tired he was because he would snore extra loud during this time.
When the plowing was going on, Mother would have us wave to Daddy with a white cup towel when it was time for dinner. He would wave back with his cap to let us know he saw us. When he got to the end of the row he would walk home or take his pickup, then eat quickly it seemed and go back to the tractor.
There was a time when he and mother would custom plow and harvest for other people, Gay would go to school at Walcott on the old school bus and Gerall would ride on the tractor with mom and I would ride with Daddy. They would make us a pallet on the floor and bring water and sometimes snacks for us.
We’d ride all day until Gay came back home on the bus-what a happy sight-then we got to go home.
Usually she and I would be responsible for the dinner dishes when we got home and would always argue about who’d wash or dry. We both liked to wash best but when we got older we both fought over who got to dry! Ha!
Summer Time was a busy time at our house with lots of memories.
Today, Bob, Gerall and Criss continue in the farming business as good stewards of our rich Panhandle farmland.