Saturday morning coffee and catching up thread March 21

[5thDragoons]

Saturday already? Our laundry stuff is in the basement, and wifey was having trouble navigating the stairs. My A plan was a dumbwaiter, but she'd still be using the stairs, so we got a stair chair. Not as pricey as I thought - the worst of it was shipping cost. Menards or Home Despot don't stock them so no choice with that. A fellow installed it yesterday and she's in biz now!

Supposed to be in the 90s for a couple days??? 90s in March??? That tells me we're going to get smacked hard with a blizzard or 3 in April!

Fallout from the Nebr prairie fires relates to hay - like there's not much around. I figure we'll see $200/ton hay this spring. Seems the root cause of the fires was strong wind making transformers throw sparks, and once the grass caught fire, it didn't stop.

Other than that, granddaughter will soon be here. Her 1st move is always to hit the cookie jar. Then I look for her to try the stair chair out - several times. SW

[lyman]

local gun show, very busy this AM, now back to normal

[PWC]

Dragoons....Fri (102 deg) evening AC went out. Climbed the roof and the fan was not turning. Called, soonest would be Sat 10 to 12. Sat. morning got call we were moved to 5-8PM. Guess when they saw we had warranty we got moved behind non-warranty ($$) customers.

Repairman arrived at 5PM (106 deg), yup it's the fan motor. No original equip on truck, used a universal for temp repair. They will call for a appt. when new one comes in. Just signed for work done, no $$. Pays to have AC warranty in Phoenix, esp in summer.

Don't know where Haystack, NE is but in 1965 I spent 10 weeks between Scribner (SAC's radio transmitter site) and Elkhorn (SAC'S receiver site) NE. going to training for SAC in the USAF. Scribner rolled up the sidewalks after 6PM. The only thing going on was the VFW. I went there one time and on the way out there was a book asking for folks to sign up help for the haying season. I went to school 6AM to noon, so afternoons were open. I signed up and walked back to the site (Scribner AFS). When I got back everyone wanted to know who I knew in town because I had received half dozen phone calls.

Now, Scribner AF Site (not the town 5 mi away) was surrounded, that time of year, with alfalfa fields. In fact the land where the antenna farm was was planted in alfalfa. I returned the call, to a Mr. Schaffer and he wanted to know if I wanted to help with the “haying”. Told him yes and I had driven a tractor and worked a hay rack for my grandfather in OK. He asked how many others I could get, and I said didn’t know but would ask. He offered $1.50/hr. To a two striper, that was big money. I asked how would I get to his farm, I didn’t have a car. He said to look out the window and I could see his house, he worked the alfalfa farm under the antenna farm and much more; I could walk to his house.

That evening I asked around in the dayroom and two guys from NYC said they would come too. I didn’t think they had ever seen a farm, let alone work on one. I told them to wear their boots, long sleeve shirts and bring their gloves without the inserts. I told them about the hay hooks we’d use and they said it was like what the dock workers used in NYC. Well, next afternoon, they showed up in boots, jeans and “T” shirts with gloves. One had his cigarettes rolled up in the shirt sleeve.

We walked over to the house, introduced ourselves and rode a hay rack to the field he was working. H hooked up the bailer and off we go… Started hooking the bales off the out feed and stacking them while Mr. Schaffer drove the tractor. Around 4 PM or so, his wife drove out to the field in a station wagon with sandwiches and lemonade and water. Best meal of the day. After eating we went back to work til we broke the pin on the bailer. Mr. Schaffer unhitched the tractor and we all went back to his house. We thought we were through, but he pointed to a faucet and wash basin and said to clean up and come inside.

We did, and the two from NYC kept complaining about their scratched up arms, which gave me a chance to remind them I said to wear long sleeves. Inside, Mrs. Schaffer had a full supper laid out. Of course three 19-20 year olds ate it all; we had worked hard at a job we weren’t used to.

We walked back to the site with my friends scratching their arms all the way. Everyone wanted to know where we had been and after my friends showed their arms and complained about the work, but fairly did praise Mrs. Schaffer

Then next day I thought I would be working the rack by myself, but my friends showed up in fatigue shirts without sewn on rank. We did this for three days and two fields.

Next day Mr. Schaffer asked if anyone had ever driven a tractor, well he knew I had, so he let me drive and he worked the rack with the other two. Later, he said we needed to teach the others, so after a short course on “tractor” he walked along side for a while.

Both NYC boys had trouble keeping the bailer in the wind rows at first. Mr. Schaffer and I were jumping off and picking up the missed stuff and throwing it in front of the bailer.

The second weekend Mr. Schaffer asked what we were going to do for the weekend and we said probably nothing. Sat. evening he said to come back Sunday morning and he would loan us a car. All we had to do was bring it back with a full tank.

Being GIs, we didn’t know what to do with it. We drove to Omaha, went to a movie in a theater that was done in what looked like red velvet and had bump out balconies along the side. It was OLD. The bathroom had a white marble wall with a trench on the floor with running water. You peed on the wall and the “flush” was automatic.

We drove across the river to Council Bluffs and found a carnival off to the side of the bridge in a park by the river . We spent the rest of the day there. Long before dark we went back, and returned Mr. Schaffer’s car.

We worked all of Mr. Schaffer’s fields, and his brothers. We didn’t put the bales away in the barn except for at his brother’s loft. For nine weeks we worked harder for Mr. Schaffer and his brother than we did for the AF. And we felt better for it.