Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Good Enough for me and Linda Barkley

Good enough for me and Linda Barkley

Today I worked on my ‘40 Ford Tudor Sedan. My neighbor Mark came over and talked about cars. Then I went over to Brooks to see how the work on the Log Loader was coming. Brian had the dray almost finished. I had to go to Portage and get a new hydraulic hose.

On Monday I plan to take it over to Lakeside Farms which is an implement dealer who takes farm equipment on consignment. I have decided to get rid of all the equipment I haven’t used in the past two years.

Most of my friends think they are going to live forever and never get rid of anything. I am amazed by the number of farm auctions and all the good items that go for next to nothing. Linda and I talked about that and have decided if our daughters don’t want the stuff we are going to slowly get rid of items that have outlived their utility and interest in our lives.

Recently I went to an auction and the old folks were still in the house peering out the window as their possessions were being sold. I saw myself in that situation in a few years hence and found the thought unsettling. There was a box full of costume jewelry from the 1930s and I bought it for my daughters… They like those old gaudy pins and flapper beads. If that box could talk, what a story it could tell…

If I could read your mind babe,
Oh what a story I could tell
Just like an old time movie, or a face from a wishing well.
Or a chateau…..

That’s all I can seem to remember right now. Those are lyrics from a song that came to mind thinking about that auction. I don’t know who to attribute them to but be advised I didn’t write them.

When I think about things the thread of a melody like that will often waft through my mind… I bet it happens to most everyone.

When I was in elementary school we used to have music one day a week. The music teacher would come in and teach us a song. It is amazing how many of those songs come back to me at the oddest times. One of them was Sweet Betsy from Pike. Whenever we sang it I thought about the pioneers crossing the plains in their wagons and making the songs up and singing them around the campfire.

Did you ever hear of Sweet Betsy from Pike
Who crossed the wide prairie with her husband Ike
With two yoke of cattle and one spotted hog
An old shanghai rooster and an ole yeller dog

Chorus

Sing tu rallie tu rallie tu rallie aye
Sing tu rallie tu rallie tu rallie aye

The Apennine Desert was burning and bare
And Ike cried in fear, we’re lost I declare
My dear old Pike Country, I’ll go back to you.
Said Betsy, “You’ll go by yourself if you do.”

They crossed the broad rivers, they scaled the tall peaks
The fought with the Indians for weeks upon weeks
They answered the arrows with muskets and ball
And reached California in spite of it all.

What a great song. All that happened not so long ago… Wisconsin was settled in the 1800s. The home where my Great-grandfathers homesteaded… (Actually he was the second owner) is where my house now sits. I like it here on 5 Car a Day road.

It's good enough for me and Linda Barkley.