Chapter 18

Grandpa Ed and Grandma Tessie were there at the end of the concourse to greet him. 

It had been a year since he had seen them. There were hugs from both and kisses from grandma. 

Sam thought it was strange. Every time he sees them, they look a little older. He wondered why the people he sees every day don’t look older every time he sees them. Grandma moved a little slower, and Sam carried his own bag to the car. 

The 35-mile ride to their farm didn’t seem to take long, especially since they stopped along the way for supper. 

The fried tenderloin sandwich, French fries, and chocolate shake disappeared quickly (Sam loves chocolate shakes). 

Sam asked if he could have seconds. Grandpa looked at grandma, shrugged and let him order another full meal. 

 As Sam was chowing down the second round of food, Grandpa said, 

“Goodnight boy, didn’t you have breakfast or dinner? I know you ate somewhere, ‘cause I saw the mustard on your cheek before your grandma kissed it off.” 

 (In many places like rural Iowa, people eat breakfast, dinner and supper. Lunch is something they eat between meals). 

Sam replied with his mouth stupendously full said: “Grandpa, it seems like months since I’ve had anything to eat.” 

Grandpa told grandma they better get the boy back to the home place and fill him up on fried eggs and ‘taters’. 

They got back in the car and headed for home. Grandma and Sam sat in the back seat and visited while grandpa drove east on Highway 92. Grandma said that Sam was growing like a dandelion. That made Sam wince. 

Grandpa Ed said to Sam: “Our neighbor, Tom Watts, just bought an old saddle horse named Lariat. Have you ever been nose-to-nose with a horse? 

 “You have no idea how close I’ve been to a horse, Grandpa.” nearly putting his head in his lap. 

 “You look tired,” Grandpa said to Sam “like you’ve traveled around the country, not just flown for a few hours on a plane.” 

Grandpa’s questions were so close to the truth, Sam almost wondered if he had been there too. 

“I-I guess I must not have slept much last night. I slept some on the plane, but I had a dream that kept me real busy.” 

Grandma Tessie spoke up: “That’s OK Honey; we have a bed made up for you in the girl’s room. Lizzy and Squeaker, er, Olivia won’t be here until later this month, so you can use their room for a while. 

As we speak, they are on their way to Oklahoma to visit their dad’s side of the family. We have things in the spare bedroom that we won’t move out for about a week.” Lizzy and Olivia (Squeaker) are girl cousins, the daughters of Aunt Jane. They live in Dallas County, Iowa, about 75 miles to the east-northeast. They don’t come to Wheeler Grove every weekend, but often enough to claim a bedroom as their own. 

Dallas County was named after George M. Dallas, Vice President under President James K. Polk. There also happens to be a town in Texas named after the Vice President. See if you can find it on a map. 

“Why do we call her Squeaker, Grandma?” 

“Well, she squeaked when she was first born, instead of crying like most babies. So we called her ‘Squeaker.’ But she’s getting older and wants to be called by her proper name now. Be warned; Grandpa and I are the only ones that can call her ‘Squeaker’ now. She corrects everyone else. Anyway, we’ll get you settled in, and you can have the upstairs to yourself for a while.” 

“I’ll still call her Squeaker. Maybe she will yell at me. Will we stop at that same café when we get Abby and Mom and Dad?” 

“No Sweetie,” Grandma said. “There won’t be enough room in the car for all of us, with your folks, a baby seat and the luggage. Grandpa will go to the airport by himself, and we’ll wait for them at home.” 

“I’d have to bring a wheelbarrow of cash to feed you.” Grandpa said. 

“Oh, Grandpa!” Grandma said to grandpa. “A growin’ boy has to eat, you know.” 

“Can I go down to the creek, grandma?” 

“Sure, it’s pretty shallow, and you know the rules; wear old sneakers to protect your feet from broken glass or fishhooks. There might be deep spots in the creek. If you get hungry, don’t eat the tadpoles. Just come to the house for a sandwich.” 

Sam gave his grandma a look of disbelief, then disgust. She just giggled and said it had been too long since she had seen that look. 

“We’re home now,” grandpa said as he pulled into the lane of their 80-acre home place, which they purchased near Wheeler Grove in the 1970s as a young couple. Sam took off his good shoes and put them on the front porch, where he intended them to stay for the next month. He helped carry in the groceries his grandparents had bought on the way to the airport. 

Sam then took his bag up to the girls’ room and threw the suitcase on the bed closest to the window. Abby would probably want to sleep with him when she arrived. That was okay. She was better than a hot water bottle on cold nights. Er, what did Sam just say? Sam again thought about how important water is to his normal, sometimes boring way of like. 

Sam sniffed the air, to see if he could get a whiff of girl cooties. The pillows smelled like cotton candy. How unfair of girls; making themselves smell like food to get a boy’s attention. And they don’t seem to grow out of it. When Sam and his family go out for BBQ, at the end of the meal, Sam’s mom puts a little BBQ sauce behind each ear. Then she bats her eyes at his dad. Sam’s dad grins real big. Parents are weird.

“It must be the girl cooties that make grown men act like that,” Sam thought. “Or maybe girl cooties grow up to be woman cooties. I’ll bet that’s it, girl cooties grow up too.” Grandma cooties are okay, except for the yucky lipstick. 

Sam’s uncle Rob wouldn’t be there for the 4th of July. He had to work the 4th. Sam’s Aunt Jane lived in Chariton and kept tabs on Grandpa and Grandma, along with Aunt Jean. Aunt Jean has two boys, Ben and Tim. He last saw them a year ago, so he looked forward to seeing them again. He wanted to bring squirt guns, but dad didn’t know if that was a good idea, so they bought cheapies and put them in his stowed bag. They made it to Omaha without being confiscated by airport security. 

Sam went downstairs. Grandpa did his evening chores, which meant feeding and watering a few head of cattle and a flock of 50 or so chickens. Sam went with him. They walked through the vegetable garden on the way back to the house and brought a bucket of tepid water out of the cow tank to water a few tomato plants. Grandpa explained that they had several tomato plants but just watered a few each day so none of them got water-logged. Sam understood. Once that was done, there was nothing to do but make popcorn and black cherry drink for a snack before bedtime. 

Grandpa was surprised Sam didn’t ask for yet another supper. Grandpa and Grandma usually went to bed about 8pm. 

Early, no? That’s okay. He was tired. He said his goodnights, then went upstairs and put on his pajamas. In a few minutes, grandma knocked on the door to tuck him in. Sam felt he was too old for this kind of thing, but he humored his grandma. 

He slid under the covers that smelled both musty, and also smelled like the stuff the girls in his class wore. Then he remembered his girl cousins probably contaminated the entire bedroom. Sam decided that even though he didn’t like girl cooties, having passed through a horse’s intestines in the recent past, he could endure sleeping in this bed. Little did he know of the protest that his girl cousins would make when they learned that Sam had been contaminating their bed with boy germs. My, what a ruckus there would be! Sam slept very well that night under grandma’s homemade quilt. 

He was down early the next morning for pancakes and eggs. Grandpa headed out to feed the chickens and Sam hurried to go with him. Sam now understood that the water would go into the hen, which could go into an egg, which might feed him or little Abby one morning, or even help make a cake to take to the county fair. Or if he lived in a big city, part of that egg could go into the sewer system and eventually help fertilize a golf course. Sam had to stop his mind from racing like that. Every time he saw water or something containing water, he traced the possible sources and destinations of the water. 

It's like hearing a song that you can’t get out of your head, the hydrologic cycle kept going through his head. 

Grandpa had a windmill to water his few head of cattle, should the electric water pump quit working. A few days later, Sam helped grandpa put new leathers in the old pump. The leathers were round leather discs that acted like valves to move water from the underground water table into the cow tank, powered by the turning blades of the windmill, changing wind energy into mechanical energy. 

Great-grandpa Harry came over to help and told Grandpa Ed what he remembered about working on pumps and windmills. Sam was allowed to climb up windmill when Grandpa Ed was there, except during lightning storms, and as long as he didn’t put his head above the level of the platform where the blades could swing around and get him. 

Sam rode home that evening with Great-grandpa Harry and spent the night with him. For supper, they had fried Spam, eggs and ‘taters, with wilted lettuce from the garden, doused with milk and sugar. The next morning, Sam helped him do his wash on the old wringer washer. They hung the clothes on the clothesline made of #9 fence wire. 

That afternoon, Sam asked to pick the cherries out of the tree for a pie. Sam liked cherry pie. Grandpa Harry told him to go ahead. He would like a slice of cherry pie like his wife used to make, but he was too frail to get up on a ladder. Sam found the ladder and picked six quarts of cherries, and the pie-hungry duo pitted the cherries. The next day, Sam and Grandpa Harry took the pitted cherries to Grandma Tessie. She said she could freeze them for the 4th of July. 

“Except for one pie to test the recipe,” said Grandpa Harry. 

“Miller’s fee!” piped up Sam. 

Grandma smiled and nodded as she pulled the flour from the cupboard. 

The next week, they all went to a nearby orchard and picked strawberries. This orchard raised different kinds of pick-it-yourself fruit and vegetables and had a place for birthday parties, hay rack rides, bonfires and a corn maze. 

Definitely a cool place to visit. Sam had to be reminded not to eat any fruit until they paid for it. 

A couple of days later, Sam helped Grandma make strawberry preserves. He carried pint jars out of the root cellar and washed them in soapy water in a washtub outside. Grandma rinsed them with hot water in the kitchen before filling them with preserves. Every trip into the root cellar reminded Sam of geoexchange energy. 

When the last of the preserves were put away, Grandpa Ed called Sam out back. He was sitting on the passenger side of the old red truck. Oh Boy! That meant that it was time for Sam to learn to drive. Already he could see himself in the Indy 500, drafting behind the lead car, ready to pull ahead on the inside and win the race. 

Grandpa must have had some idea what he was thinking and said, 

“Before you can drive a racecar, you have to learn to look after regular vehicle. Grandpa showed him how to check the oil and brake fluid, the belts, and explained how to change a tire. He said that Sam would change a tire before he left. 

Grandpa had Sam sit behind the steering wheel of the truck and get used to all the controls; the steering wheel, of course, the gear shift, clutch and brake, and the turn signal. The truck was made in 1952, so it didn’t have seat belts. Seat belts became mandatory in 1963. 

Sam got the truck started, put it in gear and promptly killed the engine because he let out the clutch too fast. 

“Shoot!” said Sam. “Why don’t we use a car with an automatic transmission? It would be so much easier.” 

“Yes, it would,” said Grandpa. ‘But that doesn’t take as much driving skills. That’s not driving a car; it’s just aiming it. 

I started driving a tractor when I was nine and owned my first car at twelve years-old, and they both had gears and clutches.” 

“You had a car at twelve? I’m jealous,” Sam nearly pouted. 

“It was a 1958 Rambler that I bought for ten dollars from my Uncle Bob who lived in Omaha. It was rusty, but I enjoyed that car and used to drive it in my dad’s field until it ran out of gas, then it would sit there until I could scrape together another 75 cents to fill my 2-1/2 gallon can. Now then, if you rev the engine up the same way you let the clutch out, the car will start to move. Then let off the gas a little and drive.” 

Sam got the hang of it after a few tries and the pickup lurched down the lane down like a baby duck with hiccups. 

Sam wanted to shift through all the gears, but Grandpa said he was about to get whiplash as it was and didn’t need to increase the odds. Anyway, they spent about an hour in the truck and Sam felt pretty good after the lesson was over. Grandpa warned him that they wouldn’t be able to do this after his cousins arrived. They weren’t old enough to learn, 

and there was no sense of them sitting there watching, green with jealousy watching Sam get to drive. Even so, Grandpa promised they would drive a little every day until the cousins arrived, which was four days away. 

Yea for both things! That same week, Sam, Grandpa, Grandma, and Great grandpa Harry drove out to Minden, Nebraska to visit a museum complex called 'Pioneer Village'. They spent the night in the motel at the site. It was one of Grandpa Ed’s favorite places to visit. Both Grandpa Ed and Grandpa Harry grew up with a lot of the tools and machines there at Pioneer Village. They saw old rural home-electric systems, water pumps, and other things that they thought were wonderful labor-saving devices. There were buildings filled with machinery and old cars, and even a steam-powered carousel that worked 

(5¢ per ride), and a steam locomotive that just sat there.

Grandpa Harry took Sam around and showed him the things he had used, and the gadgets he wished he could have used, 

if his family could have afforded them. Even so, the gypsy wagon was probably Sam’s favorite thing there. He wished he could live in a gypsy wagon in his back yard. On the way home, Sam asked why they went to that museum when there are others closer to their home. Grandma told Sam that this place existed before many of the others. 

This is also where she and grandpa first got acquainted. Although they went to the same school, grandpa was a couple of years older, and didn’t have much time for socializing. The summer she was 17, and Grandpa Ed had already graduated. 

Both families happened to be out at Pioneer Village the very same day. They saw each other at the snack stand. 

Grandma said she accidentally dropped her ice cream cone. Grandpa Ed dug into his pocket and bought her another 25-cent cone. That told her that he was interested in her, or at least was capable of feeling sorry for someone else’s troubles. 

They spent the next hour together until Grandpa Harry called her back to her family. 

That day set things in motion and Sam is one of the results of that dropped ice cream cone. Great-grandpa Harry then spoke up and told them that the meeting wasn’t accidental. The two sets of parents had planned the event to see if Ed and Tessie might hit it off. Ed’s parents knew that he looked at her picture nearly every day in the yearbook and Tessie’s mom heard her talking about Ed to a girl cousin. Most young county people would marry right out of school then, so the parents did some matchmaking. 

Grandma Tessie was astounded. She couldn’t even speak; so amazed that their parents did that. Grandpa Ed was amazed that Grandma Tessie couldn’t find any words to say, and he blushed that everyone knew he looked at her picture in the yearbook so much. It was nearly an hour before grandma could speak. She would just look at her dad and shake her head. 

Great grandpa Harry almost giggled at how well he had kept the secret for so many decades. 

He was the last of her parents still living, so he thought he should tell them.  

Sam’s cousins arrived a couple days later and stayed at the house for two whole weeks before the long 4th of July weekend. All the boys slept in a tent in the back yard. That let them raid the fridge without waking anyone-or so they thought. 

They found a jar and caught fireflies, then snuck the jar up to the girls’ room, took off the lid, yelled, and threw in the jar, slammed the door, and ran downstairs. The girls were scared at first and shrieked and yelled at the boys, but then calmed down when they saw the fireflies and enjoyed the show. 

The girls were quite unhappy that Sam had slept in their room all that time and imported a bunch of boy-cooties into their territory. They perfumigated the beds and curtains thoroughly, and properly protested to Grandma about the encroachment. Sam made a point of telling them that he had slept in both beds, so they were both thoroughly contaminated and that he probably drooled on the pillows in his sleep too. 

“Eeewww!,” said the girls. 

Grandma said she understood how a mother bird felt, trying to poke food in all those little mouths four or five times a day. Grandpa had warned that she was going to be busier than a one-armed paper hanger, and as an older woman, she was going to think she had run a full-scale orphanage by the time everyone went home. 

One morning, Sam, Tim and Ben got in a pancake eating contest. Grandma stood at the cookstove for almost an hour making pancakes until one boy gave up, then the other. Grandpa gave them a while to recuperate, then gathered up the bean hooks and took the kids to his ten-acre bean field to weed the soybeans. They groaned for a bit and then worked the field for a couple of days until it was clean. 

The chores, the creek, and the neighbor’s accommodating old horse kept the kids busy the whole two weeks. Before Sam knew it, it was the end of June and time for Grandpa to get Mom and Dad and little Abby from the airport. 

Grandma warned Sam, “Now remember Sam, it’s been a year since I’ve seen the baby, so I get to hold her first, Okay?” 

“Yes, Grandma.” Sam agreed. 

The family arrived and Grandma about wore herself out hugging and kissing everyone. Even dad stood still long enough to get squeezed while Grandpa looked on and grinned. Dad usually didn’t hug girls except for Mom and Abby. Grandma almost wore out her lips kissing Abby while they were there. The aunts came with their husbands for the 4th, and the clan had a nice get-together (as Grandpa would say). 

They had a good 4th of July dinner. Sam looked at all the food on the table and saw water everywhere, in the iced tea and juice at the table. Sam saw water in the juice in the burgers, the potato salad and coleslaw. Wow. Sam would never look at water the same way again. The girls excitedly told Sam’s mom about their trip to Oklahoma, and that their other grandma won a red ribbon at the county fair for a cake. Sam asked if it was Ester White’s yellow chiffon cake. That certainly got everyone’s attention! They asked how he knew her name and how he knew what kind of cake it was. Sam blushed and mumbled that maybe he heard the girls talking about it during the week. Whew. That was a close one.