Free Movies
It was a big treat for youngsters when in the Bowlus Park, every Friday night during the summer they would have free movies. Somebody would come out with a projector and a sheet. Everybody would be sitting on their hands or knees or legs crossed or whatever or bringing their own chairs to watch the movie. Boy! That was the only time we had a movie when we were younger. I remember there was one particular time that we were all sitting around and it was just starting to get dark and almost ready to start the movie. Some girls were running around – goofing off – and they ran and got their legs tangled up in the electric wires that they had lying on the ground to run the projector. As a result, they jerked the projector and it fell off the little stand or table that it was on and got busted. So we didn’t have a movie that particular night. Boy was that ever a disappointment! Everybody was really sad.
Making Hay during the Depression
Some of the things we used to do with the horses on the farm during the Great Depression when nothing would grow – not even grass – and we didn’t have enough grass and hay to feed the animals: There was a place by Little Falls, practically right on the edge of town, where some guy had some low-laying, meadow-type of grass. There was enough moisture in there so there was a crop of grass. My dad bought that grass standing and we went with the team of horses and cut it with a horse-driven mower and when it was dry raked it up on the hay rack. It was a big journey that took hours to get from Little Falls back to the farm. It was practically an all-day job to load up the hay and bring it back. Boy! I remember that was quite an ordeal. It was how we managed to get by — so then we had enough meadow hay to feed the horses, and the cattle especially. It was so dry that nothing would grow; during the Depression there was no rain for months on edge.