We lived in Redmondville for about a year between 1963 and some time in 1964.That would have meant that we were there from just past my second birthday,until just past my third.It was a time of emerging memory.But it would not be right to say that I remembered well,When I think of children of that age,I think of children developing language skills.There is a big difference between a child of two and a child of three.By the time I was three,I could speak in nearly full.if not exactly grammatically correct sentences,and that made all the difference when it came to remembering things.But today I am aware of the deficiencies in my recall.For instance,I have no real memory of winter ever coming,or at least of there ever being snow on the ground that year.It could have been snowless,but I think that is not true,because most years were not.And further,I have no recall of planes passing overhead,though common sense tells me there must have been a lot of them,as we were right near the edge of an airbase.
Once I was allowed outside the little pen at the side of the house,I had the run of the yard,but was not allowed near the road.I didn't favor the road much anyway,and I don't recall going near it's edge.Cars scared me,going by so fast.So my whole world,for that year became the narrow confines of our driveway,a strip maybe twenty five feet wide,and perhaps a couple of hundred feet front to back.Less frequently I would wander up by our neighbors trailer.They had two little girls,one of which was named Roxanne.We would play together some,and I believe their mother looked after us a time or two when my parents were working.At some point my mother began teaching school,at the little shack up the road,so she would be away during the day.She wasn't really a teacher,but in those days there was a shortage of teachers,and she had been to college and was allowed to teach.
Occasionally I would go into the barn too.There really wasn't a lot happening in that barn as we were not really keeping any larger animals,so there were no cows or pigs to see,at least not in there.Most of the time there were no lights on in the barn,so it was dark and I would not venture inside.
There were chickens about.I remember them,strutting in the yard,pecking at the ground.There must have been a rooster about too,though I don't ever recall hearing it.But at some point,some
kind of a little pen was erected at the end of the driveway.It was a circle of some kind of light wire,held together with pieces of wood.It seemed very high to me,but was not likely that tall.Inside there were a dozen or more tiny yellow thing.Thing I'd never seen before.They were baby chicks.I'm not certain if they came from our hens,or if perhaps they came from a hatchery and were our hens.But on the first day I saw them I remember a number of adults standing around in the driveway encouraging me to drop some bread crumbs into the pen.There was a big pan of water in the pen too,and they told me to drop the crumbs onto the ground,not into the water.I tried,but a lot of them went into the water anyway.Later I discovered that the chickens ate bugs and worms too,when I saw this big white pick up a big black beetle and begin picking it to pieces.I spent a lot of time with those chicken.They were ever present in the yard and driveway,but at night they went back into the barn by themselves.Sometimes in the mornings I'd go into the barn to help my mother or father collect eggs.Often the chickens did not want you to get near the eggs,so they would fly at us, pecking and squawking.
Chickens were not the only animals my father kept.At some point he brought home a couple of cows.He decided not to keep them in our barn ,for some reason.So he sent them over to the farmer who lived up the road.There must have been more room in their barn than in ours.They kept pigs and cows too,and maybe some goats.The farmer was a Mormon,which was very rare in New Brunswick,at least at that time.I recall that he had a wife and a lot of children,who looked remarkably similar one to the other,except for being all different sizes and ages.My mother always used to say that most of the children she taught came from that single family.Later,years later,my father told me that that farmer had more than one wife,that one would stay with him at the farm for a while,then she would leave and another one would come.I only ever recall seeing the one woman.
After my father left the cows with the Mormon family,they would sometimes get loose and come back to our yard.In fact,they were not the only animals that would come into our yard.Pigs would come to visit too,and I gathered they were a bit of a problem.Once I was out in the driveway with a young girl that was looking after my sister and I,and some pigs came up out of the bush,from the direction of our neighbors farm.They came into our garden and started digging thing up.Mostly the garden was bare earth at that time,but I think it must have been seeded.In any event,I was never allowed outside if the pigs were on the loose,and they were more that once.Pigs were something that my parents were concerned about,and I sensed that concern.I was never really afraid of them,but I'd been told not to go near them,so I didn't.
One day the big brown cow came up to our yard.I knew she lived at the farm down the road because sometimes we would go down there to milk her.One of the boys that lived there once showed me how cows were milked,and he seemed to think that telling a small child about it was somehow funny.I think he expected me to have some sort of an adverse reaction to the sight of a big teat,but I don't recall having any reaction to it at all.But I remember that brown cow coming home.She came right up to our house's front door.There was a little step there and I was sitting on it when she arrived.She started licking my hands with her long tongue,and I though it might be a good thing to bring her into the house.My father was home,and he didn't think so though.He came out,and I would have to say,the cow seemed glad to see him.They seemed to have a good deal of affection for one another.While the cow was very big nobody seemed to be as worried about her trampling us as they were about the pigs.In fact,she was very gentle.After greeting my father,she lay down right there by our front step.For a while I tried to get her to eat some flowers.Some dandelions,then some planted flowers that my mother kept by the doorway.Flowers didn't seem to interest her much.It must have been late summer or early fall.It was cool but not cold outside and I had on a light jacket.After trying to get the cow to eat flowers,I guess I must have grown tired,so I went over and lie down right on the cow who was lounging on her side in the grass.Later I woke up in the house. Nap time was over and someone had led the cow back down to the neighbors barn.
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Once I was allowed outside the little pen at the side of the house,I had the run of the yard,but was not allowed near the road.I didn't favor the road much anyway,and I don't recall going near it's edge.Cars scared me,going by so fast.So my whole world,for that year became the narrow confines of our driveway,a strip maybe twenty five feet wide,and perhaps a couple of hundred feet front to back.Less frequently I would wander up by our neighbors trailer.They had two little girls,one of which was named Roxanne.We would play together some,and I believe their mother looked after us a time or two when my parents were working.At some point my mother began teaching school,at the little shack up the road,so she would be away during the day.She wasn't really a teacher,but in those days there was a shortage of teachers,and she had been to college and was allowed to teach.
Occasionally I would go into the barn too.There really wasn't a lot happening in that barn as we were not really keeping any larger animals,so there were no cows or pigs to see,at least not in there.Most of the time there were no lights on in the barn,so it was dark and I would not venture inside.
There were chickens about.I remember them,strutting in the yard,pecking at the ground.There must have been a rooster about too,though I don't ever recall hearing it.But at some point,some
kind of a little pen was erected at the end of the driveway.It was a circle of some kind of light wire,held together with pieces of wood.It seemed very high to me,but was not likely that tall.Inside there were a dozen or more tiny yellow thing.Thing I'd never seen before.They were baby chicks.I'm not certain if they came from our hens,or if perhaps they came from a hatchery and were our hens.But on the first day I saw them I remember a number of adults standing around in the driveway encouraging me to drop some bread crumbs into the pen.There was a big pan of water in the pen too,and they told me to drop the crumbs onto the ground,not into the water.I tried,but a lot of them went into the water anyway.Later I discovered that the chickens ate bugs and worms too,when I saw this big white pick up a big black beetle and begin picking it to pieces.I spent a lot of time with those chicken.They were ever present in the yard and driveway,but at night they went back into the barn by themselves.Sometimes in the mornings I'd go into the barn to help my mother or father collect eggs.Often the chickens did not want you to get near the eggs,so they would fly at us, pecking and squawking.
Chickens were not the only animals my father kept.At some point he brought home a couple of cows.He decided not to keep them in our barn ,for some reason.So he sent them over to the farmer who lived up the road.There must have been more room in their barn than in ours.They kept pigs and cows too,and maybe some goats.The farmer was a Mormon,which was very rare in New Brunswick,at least at that time.I recall that he had a wife and a lot of children,who looked remarkably similar one to the other,except for being all different sizes and ages.My mother always used to say that most of the children she taught came from that single family.Later,years later,my father told me that that farmer had more than one wife,that one would stay with him at the farm for a while,then she would leave and another one would come.I only ever recall seeing the one woman.
After my father left the cows with the Mormon family,they would sometimes get loose and come back to our yard.In fact,they were not the only animals that would come into our yard.Pigs would come to visit too,and I gathered they were a bit of a problem.Once I was out in the driveway with a young girl that was looking after my sister and I,and some pigs came up out of the bush,from the direction of our neighbors farm.They came into our garden and started digging thing up.Mostly the garden was bare earth at that time,but I think it must have been seeded.In any event,I was never allowed outside if the pigs were on the loose,and they were more that once.Pigs were something that my parents were concerned about,and I sensed that concern.I was never really afraid of them,but I'd been told not to go near them,so I didn't.
One day the big brown cow came up to our yard.I knew she lived at the farm down the road because sometimes we would go down there to milk her.One of the boys that lived there once showed me how cows were milked,and he seemed to think that telling a small child about it was somehow funny.I think he expected me to have some sort of an adverse reaction to the sight of a big teat,but I don't recall having any reaction to it at all.But I remember that brown cow coming home.She came right up to our house's front door.There was a little step there and I was sitting on it when she arrived.She started licking my hands with her long tongue,and I though it might be a good thing to bring her into the house.My father was home,and he didn't think so though.He came out,and I would have to say,the cow seemed glad to see him.They seemed to have a good deal of affection for one another.While the cow was very big nobody seemed to be as worried about her trampling us as they were about the pigs.In fact,she was very gentle.After greeting my father,she lay down right there by our front step.For a while I tried to get her to eat some flowers.Some dandelions,then some planted flowers that my mother kept by the doorway.Flowers didn't seem to interest her much.It must have been late summer or early fall.It was cool but not cold outside and I had on a light jacket.After trying to get the cow to eat flowers,I guess I must have grown tired,so I went over and lie down right on the cow who was lounging on her side in the grass.Later I woke up in the house. Nap time was over and someone had led the cow back down to the neighbors barn.
continued
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