When I was a boy most people only had about twenty-five cows in the barn. By the time you milked them by hand and cleaned the stalls out by hand, you couldn't handle a bigger herd. Few people kept hired help, unless they had some old fellow who couldn't do too much. He might keep the wood split and bring the cows in from the pasture, things like that. But most families did it themselves.

I hear of all the scrapes kids get into and the problems they get into at school, but we didn't have time for that. We had chores to do, we owned a calf or a cow, and we wanted to be there helping with the work. I can't ever remember being expelled from school. We got into a little trouble. I had a little toy snake I had gotten at a park. I took it to school and laid it in the path of the girls going around back to the girls' room. Of course the girls squealed and hollered and made a big thing of it, and the teacher took the snake away. That broke my heart. I remember I did have to stay in during recess for a few days over that deal. I was in about third grade. The kids would bring their sleds to school and go sledding during the noon hour. Sometimes they got one ride in during recess, and guess where I was? Sitting in the school. I didn't get out to have fun with the rest of the children.

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