Drummer,
Bonnie and the T-28
by
Stan Olmstead
December 16, 2018
I. Introduction
At
first the reader would think this story is of a hunting dog, a dairy cow and a
military plane but it isn’t. It is about a boy named Richard. Yes his name is
Richard but his family and friends called him Dick, so that is how he will be
referred. Be aware that he was a boy of privilege, no his family didn’t have
money, his parents didn’t have but high school education but there was
privilege; he was a first child and that says a lot but also his parents never
once thought he couldn’t do anything he wanted and with that he pretty much
entered the world knowing he’d do well.
We
aren’t going to talk about him as a little kid or as an adult but instead for
those years of childhood and early adulthood that his younger sibling can
remember. Since it is all about remembering there is an off chance that the
facts of the story could be somewhat untrue but it wasn’t intentional and so this
is not a biography and not a work of fiction either.
Dick
was just a kid of 11 or so and his parents; Alys and Paul, had decided that they
would move to Bowerston. Dick’s father besides being a machinist and working at
Joy Manufacturing in New Philadelphia, along with Alys decided that the family
should do a little dairy farming. So after a number of years moving between
Alys’s home town in Indiana and Paul’s home town in Ohio they settled on a
little farm in Harrison County. The area had a grand history with the likes of
George Armstrong Custer and Clark Gable to mention two.
Before
this story gets to far along it should be stated, that little will be mentioned
of Dick’s younger siblings, Rob (Robin) and Christina. You see, by the time
Christina came along Dick was nineteen and by the time Dick was married she
would have been only about eight. So there isn’t a lot of these two in Dick’s
early activities. There is however activities with his other two brothers, Mark
and Stan and the later is remembering.
Anyway,
once a boy of eleven moves to a country farm the only thing for him to do is to
play with new found friends, help in farming and hunt and this is what Dick
does! His responsibility was to figure how he fit in to the operation on the
farm so when haying, plowing, harvesting occurred he was involved. To promote
his interest in farming he was given a little Guernsey heifer and he named her
Bonnie. Dick also was active in the 4-H and in high school the FFA.
II. The Home
The
farm was about 80 acres in size but I think it had been a tad larger at one
time? You see the home was built in the 1840’s you could even considered it a
“track” home because the neighboring Caldwell home and the neighboring Host
home were very similar. The story has it that in the 1800’s three brothers
moved into the area and picked up a half section of land and they all built
next to each other, which means out of sight but on the same half section, with
each having a little over a 100 acres? These three brothers pretty much owned
the watershed of a little creek, which discharged into the larger Conotton
Creek.
Dick’s
home was situated about a mile outside of Bowerston Ohio to the south and
bisected by the Plum Run road; mail delivery was Rural Route 1, Bowerston Ohio.
No zip codes in them days. The old home “was” on the west side of Plum Run and
the barn and tractor barn on the east side. The house was of three stories on
the front but of two on the back. It had been built on a slope and the basement
dug into the hill. Basement walls were
large sandstone blocks.
When
Dick arrived the house had a dirt floor basement and a coal-burning furnace.
The local area was rich in bituminous coal “stripped from the hills” leaving
scars on the land as it was mined. The house had a large support column in the
center of the basement hued square by axe. There was a fireplace in the basement, which
had been closed off with bricks some time by an earlier resident. The house was
tacked together with wood pegs, square nails and lath & plaster walls. A
wood stairway without railings led from the basement to the living quarters.
The door to the stairway entered into a hall and if you turned right you went
into the living room and if right again into the master bedroom. In those days
the ceilings of homes of this type were high, about 10 feet.
If
you turned left from the basement stairs you went into the dinning room with
the only working fireplace. The dinning room also is where the main entrance of
the house was on the north side and large hand hued sandstone steps provided
easy access to the entrance. Interesting too, one of the steps had a depression
in it that looked exactly like someone fell on it with their front teeth and
imprinted an indention? Anyway, if you turned left after entering the dinning
room you entered into the kitchen. The kitchen had hand pump water from a
spring at the sink and no hot water in the house. The house didn’t even have a
bathroom; that was a privy to the side of the house. There was a door out the
south side of the kitchen to the privy and a door out the west side of the
kitchen to a small workroom that primarily provided utility use. In the kitchen
there were stairs to the bedrooms, two. This stairway had two landings making
the stairs turn at right angles. The stairs often allowed play for three boys
to roll down in boxes while wrapped in blankets only to crash at the bottom,
crazy days for Dick and his two younger brothers. In the crash the rider needed
to negotiate a little directional change to continue off of each landing.
Anyway
the bedrooms upstairs allowed Dick’s folks to use one room and the three boys
with a full bed to occupy the front bedroom where there was an upstairs porch
on the front of the house. They never fell off the porch and that in remembrance
is a surprise as there was no railing on the porch. It also was somewhat
problematic at Christmas time if you wanted to sneak downstairs to look at
presents while the parents slept in the room you needed to pass.
As
the years continued at the Bowerston home Paul soon remodeled the master
bedroom into a bathroom, it was large. He plumbed the water and installed a
water heater. Dug and placed a septic tank in the front yard made of two large
ceramic pipe drains made at the Bowerston brick and tile yard. The tanks then drained
to an outfall to a roadside drainage ditch. Dick’s father eventually cemented
in the basement floor and opened up it’s fireplace for use, it had one of those
large metal swing arms for holding pots while cooking and if making ice cream
in winter, the basement was a great place to be.
While
residing in this home and before moving from it Dick’s father worked two
different jobs besides the farming. First Joy Manufacturing in New
Philadelphia. This is where Paul got the large scar on his face. A metal piece
he was turning on a lathe rotated off and hit him. It was a nasty cut and deep
and Paul was laid up for a while and I remember him with the 4x4 gauze on his
face. Later Paul worked at Nolan’s in Bowerston making large bolts for a
machine that could have coal car enter it and then turn up side down for quick
dumping of the coal.
III. The Farm
The
farm as stated earlier had about eighty acres of hard woods, pastures and farm
fields. Dick’s father thought that a general all inclusive farm was fit for
registered dairy cows and should have wheat, oats, clover, timothy hay, corn,
pastures and a large family garden. These were the 1950s and dairy farming was
still hand-milking cows, putting milk in cans and the cans placed on a roadside
stand twice a week for pick up. Dick’s mom was a stay at home mom but she was
proficient in milking cows and as cows need milking twice a day she was an
active participant in the farming. The farm during these ten years of Olmstead
activity never really had more than 8 “milkers” at any one time. I am not sure
who decided on Guernseys but late in Paul’s life I know he said “he should have
raised beef”. If that would have occurred, hell the family may not have even
moved to California? Anyway this “major” farming operation lasted from the
summer of 1951 to the summer of 1961. You see once the dairy industry decided
that no more cans were to be picked up at the roadside and only collected from
sanitized, stainless steel bulk tanks that was the end of the dairy farming for
the family as the cost of the tank was out of the question.
Also
on the farm and maybe more appropriately this should be included in the chapter
for the house was the spring water for the home. It was located about 100 yards
up hill from the house to the west in a grove of large white oaks always
shading the spring. The spring was dug out and had a little cement house about
3’ x 3’ with a wood door to maintain the water from having leaves and sediment
buildup. Just out front of this little house the water flowed into two cement
troughs that had been used in the past for milk can cooling and possibly other
perishable food items for the farm?
As
for the tractor barn it was positioned next to the paved Plum Run road. The
mail carrier was able to just stop on the pavement and place letters into the
mailbox attached to the side of the barn.
Above the mailbox and also attached to the barn were family signs for
4-H and Grange and the Olmstead name was on the signs. If you would look into
the barn from outside on the front, not from the pavement, there was a corncrib
to the left, the tractor park area in the middle, two-granary rooms on the
right and above the granary a hayloft, we never really put much hay there, to
the loft was a built in wood ladder with about 12 – 15 runs on it. A story can
be told about Dick getting injured at the bottom of this ladder. For some
reason, Dick, Mark and Stan wanted to go to the loft and build something? Mark
went first carrying a rip saw and miter saw, while Dick looked upward at the
bottom, well Mark dropped one of the saws and Dick has a life time scar to show
for it.
The
barn is actually the most import structure for a farm and it was no different
here. It was old and large at the time but not large once you grow up. It had
animal stalls in the bottom floor and a hayloft above and we did put hay in
this loft. For the milking cows however it was a poor building so Dad built a
small “cinder block” milking room on the east side of the barn. I don’t
remember this construction but I don’t think it was there when we moved in?
Well there was a cement floor, tin roof, stanchions to hold the cows, a feed
trough in front of the stanchions and later electricity provided. It is important
to know about the electricity because the Olmstead’s being progressive farmers
progressed as money allowed. First horse plowing, later a used Massey/Ferguson
tractor, then a less used Ford tractor. For milking it was by hand but once the
electricity was taken to the barn they could use a small milking machine. It is
interesting to note that mom always could get about a quart of milk from each
cow more than our dad or the milking machine.
In
the introduction above there was mention of Bonnie. This is not only import for
discussing Dick’s farming education but also to present the details of dairy
cow showing at the fair and to discuss the cowbell. Bonnie was Dick’s heifer
and was not only part of the dairy operation but a show animal. Showing was
basically just in the early fall, at the Harrison County fair in Cadiz.
To
prepare your show animal for the judges there was a lot to do and dairy animals
have different needs than beef animal. For Bonnie it meant a perfect shampoo
bath followed by long and meticulous brushing. Hair clipping on the back of the
neck and around the hooves and anywhere there were loose ends. Then the tail
had the long end hairs bleached and “ratted” to look fluffy, white and spectacular.
Then the hooves and horns needed an emery cloth buffing and clear nail polish
applied. Lastly and this was important a gold chain was hung around the horns with
the end in the middle of the cow’s forehead and a small brass lock attached, perfect
jewelry for a registered cow.
Before
I finish with the showing let me mention a little about registered dairy cows.
You see this was important, breeding was everything and you needed the best for
milk quality and quantity. Well you have
two choices and that is natural breeding and artificial insemination (AI). Dad
did both but AI was most common. For a kid it was gross! When the cow was in
“heat”, I think about twice a year? The farmer would notify the vet or an AI
specialist. These guys come to the farm and confirm the perfect time to
inseminate. Well Paul used “Cobra Brand” sperm and selected it from a list of viable
bull candidates. This stuff came in glass tubes about 10 inches long. The tubes
only had a narrow opening in the center more like a thermometer holding mercury
than a vial of loose fluid the material was colored to identify the specific
sire. The ends of the tube were closed off and it was necessary to break off
the end of the tube before insemination. The vet “donned” a long rubber glove,
took the tube in hand and placed it in the vagina of the cow all the way to his
shoulder. After a brief repose the tube and arm were removed and the colored
fluid was gone, then the wait to see if it was successful, it wasn’t always,
but it was pretty efficient.
The
other method I talked about was the natural breeding and for Paul it took on a “husbandry
payment” by offering to raise a bull calf to maturity and then getting the
first or second year of breeding from the bull and then returning the animal to
the owner. Seems expensive but I guess it worked? Interesting to note that
Guernsey bulls are big, not as big as Holsteins, but big, for a little kid they
were fearsome. Well for Paul to handle these large animals he put a brass ring
in their nose, put a 8 foot chain on the ring and made the animal graze with
this contraption at all times. That way if you need to handle the animal you
just grabbed the chain and gave it a yank or two and the bull would succumbs to
your “commands”. One time it is remembered that a bull got the chain caught on
a large stump in the pasture. That animal beat the chain against the stump for
a while and nearly removed the stump before Paul noticed the situation and
untangled the chain from the stump.
Returning
to the show arena and now that the cow is in perfect beauty condition it is
show time. This of course is in early September and the show animals are taken
to the county seat of Harrison County in Cadiz, Ohio. The 4-Her has the luxury
for the week of not just showing but caring for the animal in its stall and
sleeping with friends in the lofts overlooking the animals. Smells were grand
and sounds were unique and there were other barns with other animals and
exhibits and the amusement rides, and foods; all and all, great fun.
Well
at show time the main celebrity; Bonnie, was haltered with a brand new leather
halter and lead line. Dick and the other owners are dressed in good cloths with
white shirts and lead the prize animals into the arena to be judged and looked
upon by the audience. Bonnie is one of six or seven other animals in the arena
all with their owners leading the prize animals in a circle on the wood chips
of the arena floor. At times the owners stop the animals all in a line and have
the cows take a perfect poise. This poise is a perfect appearance with the two
front feet side by side and the two back feet off set. A blue ribbon was good
but the grand prize was the prize you wanted. It was rumored that small farm
operations had a disadvantage with the big operations as the later had a name
that needed more promotion but I don’t know, it all may have been fair. The one
name I remember were the Buxton’s, they raised Holsteins and their farm was
near Tappen Lake. We showed against them every year.
The
cowbell and this is pretty exciting because we still have the damn thing. Dick
has it at his home in Milton but I’ll get to that later, here is what I
remember. You see, the bell was stolen grandpa had a neighbor next to his Two
Oaks home he had built in Pleasant Valley near New Philadelphia. I even think
the neighbor was a relative? Well the neighbor had a cow and the cow wore a
bell. The bell was a high quality Swiss bell with a founding date of 1848. I
don’t think that was the actual date it was made because you can buy similar
bells today that are the same design.
Anyway
grandpa Olmstead told his neighbor that the bell was keeping him up at night as
the cow rested near the fence and near grandpa’s bedroom, well the neighbor was
slow in action so grandpa just took the bell off and put in the house. That’s
where it stayed until Paul and Alys decided to farm near Bowerston, they needed
a “damn” cowbell so we now have the bell. This was a good thing especially if
the cows were in the woods somewhere and needed to be herded to the barn for
milking because you just heard the bell and headed in that direction to herd
the cows to the barn.
It
is thought that more than one cow had the privilege to wear the bell but I
thought Bonnie wore it and Mark said yeah but his cow wore it as well, how would
I know? Well near “tragedy” struck and one of the cows lost the bell somewhere,
boohoo, but low and behold some time months or years later after snow melt and
short spring grasses the bell is found in the pasture and it is only one of but
a few items that make the trek to California. It lingered here and there and
who knows where but after mom died, I acquired it and thought that just maybe
Dick would like it for a while so I gave it to him during a visit to Milton. I
think that if it is ever passed on Mark and I may need to fight for it or
submit a legal action to get it back.
IV. Antics
Discussing
the antics by the Olmstead boys you have to be aware that some of them may have
just been Mark and I but since in all likely hood Mark got his ideas from Dick,
Dick probably did them as well. Instead of a narration let the games be
itemized.
Breaking sticks: This game necessitated two
warring individuals. Each to collect about five dead tree branches (sticks)
about three feet long off of the forest floor. All were held in the left arm but
one. This one was held in the right hand for shooting. The two warriors spaced
themselves off about twenty feet on the up hill of the forest and began running
down hill as fast as possible. Passing small trees you’d swing the hand held
stick against the tree in hopes of breaking off the last 6 inches of the stick
and whirling the broken part toward the other warrior. If done correctly you
can get about six shots a stick and with the other sticks in reserve you get
about thirty shots. Little or no injury ever occurred but a lot of ducking
needed to occur at times.
Riding trees: This game wasn’t done a lot,
as it required so much labor for one but lots of enjoyment for the other. First
the rider needed to climb a tulip popular tree to thirty or forty feet. These
trees have smooth and flexible branches and leaves. Next the other person begins
chopping down the tree. Tulip popular are pretty easy to cut with an axe so the
time isn’t to long. Then when the tree falls the rider rides to the ground and
can actually direct the tree in a direction to prevent injury to him self. So
much fun!
We
named them due to the shapes: 1. The
Tank - This rock was oblong with a large protrusion on top much like a tank
turret 2. Superman’s Rocket Ship – Had a vertical front wall about 9 feet high
with a backside sloped about 45 degrees and the sides were also vertical,
difficult to climb. 3. The Loaf of Bread – This rock was really interesting
because it was shaped much like a loaf of bread with the end cut and two slices
lying near the cut end. 4. Unnamed – It didn’t really have
distinguishing features but interesting because it had an over hang that
allowed camping under it and free from the rain if needed.
The Jeep: Some where during these early
years Paul “bought?” a jeep pick up, well not a pickup as such it had a large
bed on the back so I don’t know if it was a ¾ ton or more but it had a lot of
storage space. A gray vehicle “cab and bed” and great for hauling hay, well
after some time, for whatever reason the truck wasn’t needed any more but
wasn’t sold it was made into a “grand dune buggy”. The bed was removed the cab,
doors and even the windshield was removed with a torch and Dick used it to
drive around the farm. Never knew it to go on the road but do remember it
getting stuck in the creek some and needing the tractor to unstick it.
Uncle
Billy’s: He wasn’t our uncle and I never met him. I think he was a Host and
even today the dirt road to his farm is the Host Road. He must have been
someone’s uncle though because it was always Uncle Billy’s. If you walked out
the house up the hill, past the spring, past the “archaic” apple tree in the
woods, past the glacial stones you came to a fence and Uncle Billy’s. He had a
wonderful hay field above a beautiful white barn at the bottom of the slope.
Hay could be driven in the back double doors of the barn and unloaded for
stacking. Below this area was the dairy milking area but during our ten years
on the farm only Billy’s hay was cut and baled never the barn used for cows or
milking. There was also a little cottage on the farm but never occupied.
Us
kids could venture to Billy’s farm anytime and just hang out where ever we
pleased and away from every one. On occasion we’d play a came there in the
hayloft in which there was a large “fork” for holding bales of hay. It was
connected to a rope and pulley system that was intended to lift bales of hay
from the barn floor up to the loft and the person doing the lifting could
release the bale so a worker in the loft could put the bale in a stack. But I
never saw that happen, what we did was put a bale on the fork and have someone
sit on the bale. Then the person with the rope lifted the other to the rafters
and across the hay loft to a safe location and then pull the cord and drop the
bale and the other into the stack of hay, usually about a 10 foot drop.
Uncle
Billy’s also was the best place for picking black raspberries. We had other
locations but his is remembered for the large number of berry bushes. To pick
you reached “here and there” and eventually needed to enter a more central area
of the berry patch. Doing this required knocking down some of the plants. You
would step on them and push enough down to provide a path into the patch and
eventually had a maze of paths throughout the patch. This picking went on for
about three weeks of mature berry growing period and then it was over until
next year. It was always the brothers never the mothers that conducted these
pickings.
Cow Tail Races: This was pretty simple and
not done often but it had its risks. In front of the barn was a generally flat
area but just east of this area was a steep slope down to the flood plane of
the creek. It only was about thirty or forty feet in elevation change but had a
steep grade. Well what you’d do is grab a cow’s tail, heifers were faster than
cows, then slap the cow and have her run down the embankment towards the
creek. She could run faster than you so
you really had to make the feet move to keep with her and prevent falling.
Falling could be a rough landing but it was funny watching someone trying to
stay on their feet.
Pee Wee: He was our pony and I don’t
think we had him more than five years.
Dick was the one that rode him the most. Pee Wee was light brown, he
could have been chestnut or roan, I don’t know, he was brown. Not a large pony
but not small either. A couple of events are remembered. Once Dick was riding
him out Uncle Billy’s lane when something happened? What ever it was Pee Wee
took off with out Dick and headed down the lane rider less. By a chance of
timing dad was returning home from work about then and nearly collided with Pee
Wee as he came off the lane and onto the pavement, a close call, dad
successfully slammed on the breaks and nearly left the road but it worked.
Another event and the only time I ever remember dad hitting an animal. We were
in the farm field in front of the barn doing something and what ever occurred
Pee Wee took a big bite onto Mark’s chest. It was a nasty bite and dad grabbed
a flat shovel and broke that shovel over Pee Wee’s butt. I think there is more
to that story but I was little. I don’t remember Pee Wee’s earlier life and when
the farm materials were auctioned in 1961 Dick was there in his FFA jacket
helping with sales, Pee Wee was ridden one last time by Dick and we hope his
life turned out well.
V. School
School
for Dick during these 16 years reminisced through story started with Bowerston
Elementary but I don’t have a clue what Dick did while attending. It hadn’t
always been an elementary school at one time it schooled first through the
senior year of high school but some time maybe just as Dick was about to enter
high school the school district built a new high school for all the near by
communities of Leesville, Bowerston, Sherrodsville and other communities as
well as the outlining areas of parts Harrison and Carroll County. It was named
for the major creek in the valley, Conotton Villey High School. Now this is when Dick’s major activities
begin taking real shape. He ran track. He played major foot ball games, well by
major I mean six man foot ball because the school didn’t have enough students
for an eleven member team and I am not sure he played varsity but he could
have? What I do remember though that a transition was occurring about this time
when the old leather helmets stitched together with leather strings were being
phased out and the wonderful world of plastic was beginning for football.
Forget anything about face guards that’s much later, these old helmets are a
thing to remember and I know it is what Dick used for at least the first year
of his glorious football career.
After graduation from Conotton Valley and getting
to Ohio State University was a challenge because first, you remember I said
earlier, that Dick was privileged. Well that was a family secret that others
were not aware of, you see in high school Dick’s councilor hadn’t got the
message and told him he wasn’t college material and should consider something
more vocational? Never mind that though
Dick heads to Ohio State in Columbus Ohio and begins studying; I don’t know
agriculture/chemistry, what ever. What I do know is that he worked as a butcher
and performed competition springboard diving for the school and he wasn’t half
bad.
Well
to change direction here, as you know the folks head west and I guess it all
made sense for Dick to follow and some how, some way, he treks off to
California to be with the family and continues for a short time his education
at Peirce Junior College in Woodland Hills. We all know that a school of higher
learning named after the president before Buchanan has to be a topnotch school.
Well this is a short lived activity because before long he exits the junior
college and heads to Northridge State University and once again Dick is in
diving but now he is focusing his studies to chemistry.
A
short story is Dick’s lifeguard work at the Chatsworth pool and his diving
activities. He dove the meter board and three meter and did pretty well. This
pool had a coach and he was coaching some Olympic diving board contenders and
as I saw Dick was in there with the best of them but other than competing at
Ohio State and Northridge State College I don’t know if he competed elsewhere?
Then
there was the fight this event occurred at the home on Runnymede Street in
Canoga Park. Dick in College and Mark in high school, one day Mark was making
up a “humungous” hamburger paddy for lunch, mixed with egg and saltine crackers
much like a wonderful meat loaf sandwich. Well Dick came home from somewhere
and sees this big burger in the fry pan and says he wants some of it. Mark says
it ain’t happening. Dick grabs the spatula and cuts that baby in two and Mark
pushes him back, Dick charges Mark and the fight is on. Their knocking over
furniture and I am moving tables and chairs to prevent any damage and they are
rolling on the floor from room to room and then up and then down and finally
Mark runs to another room and picks up a bathroom plunger and slams it across
Dick’s ribs. The plunger causes Dick to lose his breath and that is the end of
the fight.
VI. Hunting
Dogs
were common on the farm, I mean who wouldn’t have dogs? There were a number of
them but the ones remembered are Prince, Duke, Drummer and Suzy. Prince was the
family dog. Duke was mom’s dog but Drummer and Suzy were Dick’s. Dick got into
hunting in a big way, the story goes he showed interest early but there was a
man not far a way towards Tappen Lake that Dick met and some how the man
mentored Dick in the skills of the nimrod and indirectly this guy mentored me
as well. Dad never was the schooling type of father and I am not sure why but
when it came to hunting and guns Dick picked up from this guy and we boys
picked it up from Dick. If the order of dogs are to be correct Suzy came first,
she was a pup and only with us a short while. She was a beagle and beagles are
for hunting rabbits. The dog “nose” out rabbits barking as they go and once
they are on the scent they chase it forcing the rabbit into a run circle and
working the rabbit back to the hunter for a shot. Poor Suzy though had the
misfortune of being hit by a car out on the Plum Run road and not just any car.
The car was driven of Dick’s good friend the Milligan boy?
Drummer
was also Dick’s but a blue tick this time. The blue tick is a coon dog and when
they pick up the scent of a coon and on the chase, they force the coon to tree.
Always hunted at night the sounds and smell of the forest with friends chasing
the sound of the dogs with “carbide lanterns” attached to your hat with a 22. Rifle
for the kill, I never participated in one of these hunts with Dick and the move
to California stopped all further thought of any future hunts.
The
carbide lantern is worth knowing as it was used in the coalmines and hence easy
to convert of night hunting. The design is of a small brass lantern with a
four-inch reflective shield with a gas port in the center, this attached to a
small water canister with about 4 ounces of water and screwed onto another
small canister below it that held carbide. You’d put the water in the upper and
the carbide in the lower and start a slow drip of water into the carbide that
produced methane gas that vented out the port on the shield and could be
controlled with a long or short flame. Once lit it could last a long time. Worn
on your hat as it directed light forward and allowed hand free operation for
handling your gun or pick axe or what ever.
I
remember three working guns, four if you count the thirty-two caliber rim fire
that we never used, the three that were used on the farm are as follows: First
the 22. Caliber single shot Remington that we inherited from grandpa Olmstead,
it wasn’t much of a rifle but we used it a lot. It had a “hair trigger” that I
don’t think ever concerned us much but it was the only gun that I ever remember
accidentally firing without intent as Mark “cocked” the damn thing then set it
against a tree. Well it slipped off the tree and fired, it also required a new
hammer on the bolt which dad lathed to perfect fit and I assume is still
attached? The other 22 was a rifle of Dick’s and also a Remington. A bolt
action six shot with a clip and a low powered scope. I think we were at my
uncle Chuck’s (dad’s brother) hardware store in Wooster to buy it but who
knows? The last was also Dick’s and it was a Mossberg 410 shot gun that Dick
got for Christmas. Dick related later, many years later that he was really
disappointed in the 410 as he wanted a 20 or 16 gauge but parents even when
they try screw up at times. Dick said that although it was smaller it did allow
him to be able to shoot more accurately since it was a smaller gun and require
better marksmanship.
The
gun case was a project of Dick’s and I don’t remember whether it a high school
project or father/son project but since we had guns we definitely needed a case
to store them. It was made of pine
boards, finished with a light pine color and a glossy appearance. It stood
upright about 6 feet and against the wall. It could hold about five guns with a
storage area for ammunition and gun cleaning material at the bottom.
Ground
hogs were plentiful and damaging to agriculture so shooting them was an obvious
one-part solution to protecting crops. Our dog Prince was an accomplished
ground hog remover but we shot them at times as well and Dick was number one in
the “let’s see if we can bag a ground hog”? Prince would constantly fight and
kill the hog and bring it to the house, which eventually was noticed and needed
immediate removal from the yard. Once we noticed Prince down in the red clover
field not far from the house and noticed he was fighting a “hog” Marmota
monax. So we walked down to the little arena that Prince
had made during this encounter but instead of taking any action just sat and
watched until the event was over. Not sure of the ethics in this little spectator
activity but you looked for enjoyment where it could be found, I wasn’t in
charge, there was an adult present.
Another story that took years to understand is that
we eat these little rodents and they fried up well. Dark meet and a little oily
but still good. Well all of a sudden we stopped eating them. Never knew why and
didn’t think of it until years later but by rational thinking figured that dad
must have gotten a raise and not wanting to be “white trash” stopped the
activity of eating this savory critter. Then years later possibly when Dick was
in California for mom’s funeral or possibly when he visited Utah for a deer
hunt he let me know the truth. He was the shooter of these critters and once he
went to Ohio State the activity stopped and hence no more groundhog
dinners.
No deer
in Ohio. That is what I remember, I don’t think I saw one in those ten years on
the farm but you’d see tracks in the snow at times. Wildlife need essential
habitat of food, water, cover and space and the combination of these four to do
well. We had that on the farm and all the farms in the area but hunting is
about only harvesting the number of animals over the “carrying capacity”. That
means if 100 deer can live well in any given area and there are 120 of them
then killing 20 deer would maintain the number without trouble. In the 1950’s
though the game laws were not established for any length of time and poaching
was a common event so the number of deer declined drastically. When the
Shawnee, Mingo and Delaware Indians lived in the area I am sure there were deer
but with white settlement the numbers were killed off and it takes time not
only for the return of the animal but for the public to stop poaching and
obeying the game laws. Today the same area is doing well and has a very healthy
deer population.
There
is one story of Dick going out to hunt in the snow with about six inches on the
ground and it was cold. He picked up some tracks and a little blood as well as
the animal traveled from farm to farm. Well he started tracking that animal and
the daylight started to fade and he wasn’t any closer to the animal as he could
determine. Night came and he still had tracks but fatigue and the cold closed
in on him and late at night he sought the help and shelter of a farmers home.
Dick tells the story better and there was no deer bagged that night.
Hunting
gray and fox squirrels in the beech forests was probably the most common
hunting activity for all of us, fox squirrels are larger and prettier but there
were few and the gray squirrel although common were not numerous. The classic
method to hunt these guys is with shotgun as they run fast and change
directions quickly but we used a 22. Rifle. The squirrels loved the beechnut
and if you were to see a squirrel it would be in a beech tree. So we just found
a good location at the base of a large tree and waited. If one came out and ran
along the branches of the tree, he’d stop at some location on the branch and
while sitting you could take the shot. It wasn’t easy and a lot of waiting.
VII. The Move
In
1961 and I am not sure how it all came about but with Dick at Ohio State and
the folks knowing that the remaining kids would need education it was obvious
that Paul and Alys couldn’t afford college. As luck had it though they had
family in Reseda California, mom’s sister Wilma and her husband John. Word had
it that there was work for a machinist in the area so the folks had a farm
auction and packed up a small amount of stuff and off they went in their new
1960 Ford Fair lane, six cylinder, three speed on the column shift with trailer
towed behind.
VIII. The Military
This
is where the T-28 comes in but that will have to wait for a moment. Dick was
busy with his schooling, working at Penney’s selling shoes and being a life
guard at a private pool when a father of a friend suggests to Dick that he
should consider the Navy as a career and that aviation would be a good fit for
him. This man is one of a few that were important to Dick. First his parents
Alys and Paul knew how to raise “kids” they didn’t know it but its true. Second
there was that guy I mentioned earlier near Tappen Lake that introduced Dick to
the natural world and the appreciation of hunting in the great out doors but
this guy that says “hey why don’t you try the Navy? You’ll get in and it will
be an adventure”. Well this is probably the best encounter because what this
does is it provides 6 year of officer training, experience and credentials that
he wouldn’t of had any other way and if the next installment of Dick’s
biography is written it should start with this guy.
There
isn’t a lot remembered of Dick leaving the San Fernando Valley and heading to
Pensacola for Navy training. I know he was at Pensacola and later at Corpus
Christy for training and little else but one thing is remembered and that was the
plane crash.
The
T-28 was the training plane of choice for the Navy and may still be today? It
is a “work horse” of a plane and I am sure has fawn memories for Dick. As told
later, Dick had a “wild cowboy” style instructor and they were to fly out of
Florida and train over Alabama. It was “stalls” I believe and the training for
a stall is a little tricky. You don’t want to actually do a stall just close
but the instructor liked the edge and in the operation a complete stall
occurred. Dick seated in the front the instructor behind could not return the
plane to power and it started to spin down. The instructor says time to eject.
Dick struggles with the release and in doing so either loses his helmet in the
plane or as he ejects. The instructor ejects but is hit by the plane and never
opens his shut. Dick now with fully inflated parachute is dropping at 17 feet
per second and watching as the instructor lands in the farm field of Alabama.
But now he notices that the spinning plane is falling about the same speed as
himself and passing ever so close to him again and again. At last the plane
crashes to the ground, Dick lands safely with only riser burns to his face and
walks to a farmhouse to call the base. As the debriefing occurs Dick is worried
that the delay will impact his training and that the lost helmet will be an
issue. It goes well and Dick returns to training.
What
I remember is somewhat different. We were living on Vanowen Street in Canoga
Park. It was a warm day and sunny I don’t remember the month but one of Dick’s
friends showed up at the house. He was one of those Ivy League guys and pretty
proud of himself but I didn’t really know him, I am sure if he was Dick’s
friend he was a good guy. Well anyway he drives up to the house in his MG convertible
and is telling dad that he was reading the Green Sheet, a news paper of the
valley, and sees this article about a navy pilot in Pensacola that had an
emergency where one of the pilots died and the other landed safely and Dick’s
name was in the article. Well hell this isn’t good we need all the info, who
died? Well after great effort and mom getting through to the navy base by phone
and to the right unit they are at last connected with Dick, safe for sure and a
story to remember, wait there’s more.
Well
Dick is back to training and now is headed to Corpus Christy for what ever and
while there dad has the wonderful opportunity to fly to the gulf coast to be
with him. This is when the award was granted. The Navy has a tradition that if
you parachute in an emergency that the service member receives the “golden
caterpillar”. A pin designed as the silk
worm in honor of the caterpillar that provided the parachute materials. So an
awards ceremony was given, Dick receives the recognition and the award and is
able to pass it to his father in public, a very proud moment for Paul Sheridan
Olmstead.
IX. Conclusion
Well
enough of this story, if it needs to be told about Dick’s early years he’ll
need to do that and if we need to tell his years after marriage I suggest
George and Kelly can do the narration? Telling the story of a man as if the
history can be remembered is difficult but writing it down provides thoughts
that return to you unlike just talking about it. If the truth is to be told but
someone thinks I haven’t told the truth, well let them that know tell the
story.
…. Dick lives on with more and more adventures.
