A Return Home

Although I just moved back to my childhood hometown, I really didn’t spend that many years here. I am the oldest in my family, and I spent most of my formative years growing up in Southwest Missouri on a dairy farm. There are seven years between my brother and me and that made a big difference growing up on the farm. Although I was a girl, I in essence became my dad’s boy.

I was expected to be able to do the same things that a boy my age should be able to do. And since it was my dad, I had to do it even better. I hauled hay, milked cows, fed the cows and the calves, drove tractors, shoveled manure and did pretty much anything my dad asked me to do. I was his female boy. I was the oldest, so I had responsibilities to take care of and I had to be sure they were done correctly the first time. There were no second times with my dad.

Now, my dad really wasn’t harsh. He just needed help on our 105 acre farm. I was the oldest, so it fell to me to do the work. My brother and my sisters were just too little at the time. I remember one time when the grain auger quit functioning and I had to haul 5 gallon buckets of grain to fill the bins in the milking stalls. I was quite strong for a girl because I had to be. It was during this time that a young man stopped by to see me and finalize the details for our prom date. When he inquired after me, my dad told him I was in Prom training. It was about this time that I came around the corner with my buckets of grain. He didn’t think that was too funny. But I did and so did my dad.

So why am I reminiscing about the days of the past? Well, it became apparent to me yet again that I am still my dad’s boy. I may be a mother and appreciate flowers and lotion and all of the girly stuff, but I am still my dad’s boy. He just got to have two of them to boss around since my husband is working by his side. My husband was laying floorboard in the bathroom and I was hauling in boxes of tile to lay.

I may be my dad’s boy, but I am also his little girl. It doesn’t matter how old I get over the years. And that is enough to make me smile.

Photo provided by Robb