Down Memory Lane with Artie, back when he lived, worked and grew up "Down on the Farm"
A hard workin' farm boy, who now resides in Maine, takes us back with him and his brothers to the family farm. The following is the fourteenth posting in my farmer appreciation series....
"I grew up on a small
dairy / hog farm in Southeastern Massachusetts, oldest of four boys.
When I was small I had after school chores that included cleaning cow
manure in the barn, feed off the grain and silage to the cows. Hard, physical work that I wouldn’t change it for the world.
"We
lived in a small uninsulated farm house; main heat supply was a wood
stove in the kitchen. Long Johns were a very important thing on the
farm. There was no official start date to long underwear season, just
Ma saying that Dad is in long johns so you boys get them on before
you go to the barn.
"The above picture of rural brothers is special to me as we were spaced out in
years like they were. We boys would shed our barn clothes in the back
room and stand all around in our long underwear warming up while Ma
got us our “clean jeans” to put on. We would play grab ass and
fight like brothers do!
"I
can still hear my Grandma saying “you look like perfect gentleman
in your underpants “ in an exaggerated Irish accent while my Mother
laughed at her sense of humor. "Growing up on a dairy farm, I learned to always wear clean long johns to bed so your sheets don’t smell like corn silage.
"There's still a little rural boy left in me.... Artie up in Maine."
Farm boy and union suit fan, all grown up, learned the values of hard work as a youngster. Like most every farm kid, those lessons were taken to heart and have served him (and them, I presume) well. Thanks, Artie, for sharing your story of growing up on a farm.
Long time union suit fans will remember another couple of farm boy postings I featured written by Ron Payne, a great friend over the years. He honored me by portraying his early years on a farm in Virginia. Here's a portion....Scroll back to November 14, 2019 in Union Suit Fan to "An Innocent Rube" for one of the best stories of youth and union suits you'll read! A big shout out to my buddy, Ron, for his memories.....
Growing up back in the 50's there were union suits in the inventory of clothing stores that served small towns and farming communities. I always shunned union suits as being too ridiculous looking when I was a youngster. But when I got into high school and was changing into gym clothes, I saw a few of the boys from the nearby farms wearing union suits without shame. They laughed at themselves and ribbed each other over their "hillbilly" long johns. But there also seemed to be an element of pride in wearing "country boy" underwear.
I grew up in Loudoun County in northern Virginia on a farm between Purcellville and Lincoln. My Dad wore two piece thermal underwear but no one I knew wore union suits. I'd only seen men in union suits on TV or in the movies and it was always associated with comical humiliation. Like John Payne in "Restless Gun" when masked men held him up and made him strip down to his union suit. He had to walk into town in his one-piece long johns while the townsfolk laughed. But I saw union suits at the clothing store in Purcellville and, of course, there were the Sears catalog ads. Any type of long underwear seemed an embarrassment to me when I was a kid. So I avoided the thermal two piece type that my father wore, not to mention union suits. Being shy, I was afraid of looking stupid and having people laugh at me....
Read more in those postings I mentioned above and then take a look at Ron's update which I posted in 2023. You'll want to turn to that one too. Here's a portion:
Why Be Shy? How I Came to Stop Worrying and Love the Union Suit
By Ronald Payne, Guest Contributor
I grew up on a Dairy Farm in northern Virginia during the 1950s and like other boys who lived on a farm I was expected to do at least some farm chores. I was excused from helping with the milking (I was scared of the cows that were so much bigger than I was) but other chores like gathering eggs, feeding livestock and driving a tractor during haymaking season were a part of my growing up. This necessitated wearing work clothes which I hated. I didn’t want any part of a farm identity (I wanted to be a sophisticated city kid). I was afraid I’d be seen in farm work clothes by other kids. When winter came around I drew the line on wearing long underwear. My Dad wore the two piece variety, but I thought “long johns” were just too embarrassing. If I had to be outside in snowy cold weather, I’d happily wear coats and sweaters, but no way I’d ever wear “long johns”......
Thanks, again, Ron...Chris
