[Scott Douglas]

When I was younger I went to visit my grandmother back in Ohio for a couple of weeks. Her third husband's family (she outlived three of them) had a dairy farm with 100 milking head of cows. I remember the morning I arrived, my BMW 1600 had broken down (clutch linkage bushings) about a mile past their house, or what I assumed was their house as I wasn't really sure at the time. As I was looking at the car by the side of the road a bunch of guys following the school bus stopped and asked if I needed any help. I gave them the name of my grandparents and asked if they knew where they lived. Sure enough it was the house I'd passed. They gave me a ride back up the road to the house and then took off for school. I knocked on the door and my grannie said she hardly recognized me I was so pale and thin. I'd been living in Missouri with a friend and we hadn't been eating three squares a day for quite a while.
She fixed me breakfast and my step-grandfather helped me tow my car up to his garage so I could work on it later. We then went out to survey the farm and tend to his oil well pumps as it was starting to get near winter time. His son was running the family farm so arrangements were made to make use of my 'free' labor so to speak.
For the next two weeks I worked on the farm as one of the hired hands. Learned how to drive a tractor, move bales of hay (rolls) from one pasture to another, put up corn and shovel s@#$#. Lots of that on a dairy farm, believe you me.
There was a hill leading out of the barnyard that the cows had problems with when it would ice up. We poured a big long patch of concrete one day going up the hill. I didn't know we were going to leave it 'as poured' so I started showing off my concrete finishing skills that I'd picked up at home. Boy did I get chewed out for making it too smooth. I did find out that concrete takes a lot longer to cure when the ambient temp is only in the 40's.
One thing I'll never forget were the lunches my grannie would cook up for us. First one took me a good hour to finish. The homemade apple pies were the best. But the steak, I've NEVER had a steak as good as the home grown, corn fed beef she served. Melt in your mouth good.
By the time I fixed my car and was ready to leave two weeks later, I'd put on about 10 pounds and could finish off a lunchtime meal in 20 minutes flat. And this was no small meal either. Steak that covered half the plate, baked potato, salad, roll, and home made cider.
And don't forget the pie. I really miss those pies.
Thanks for taking me back to that time with your editorial. Some good writing there.