Old Bob and Old Blue
Things have a softer glow when viewed from 50 or 60 years old memories but this is my story. Much like the Dustin Hoffman movie Little Big Man I can recall several facets of my life and sometimes they seem disconnected, even to me. At other times they are very connected and I am still that little boy growing up with a house full of brothers.
Looking back at our time on the farm I have come to the realizations that all our animals were referred to as old, as in old Bob and Blue the work horses, old Rebbie the saddle horse, old Bossy the cow and later on old Shep and old Troubles two of our dogs. The work horses Bob and Blue had been trained to work in the woods, hauling timber. Dad set in to train then to pull the wagon and to till and work the fields. This was much different than working in the woods and row cropping and farm work required much more precise training. In the woods horses were hooked to the logs and pulled with all their might until they got to where they going and turned around and repeated the same thing over and over. Working on the farm meant they had to do many task and do them safely. Pulling the wagon was sometimes done by simple commands like “Gee” and “Haw” for left and right. I remember hand pulling the field corn and voice commands were all that were used so all hands could harvest the corn.
My first memories of Old Bob and Blue was when we moved to the Owl City Community just south of Hoxie. I think it was 1946 or 47 and we moved the horses and farm equipment on a trailer truck. If I remember correctly the farm equipment was loaded at the front of the trailer and a fence was placed between it and the horses. The first order of business was unloading the horses and giving them a rubdown to make sure they were OK and probably to calm them down.
We did use old Bob and Blue and the wagon as transportation for a year or two, this was around 1948-49. I remember going to Walnut Ridge and leaving the team and wagon at a warehouse area next to the railroad while Mom and Dad shopped, Donald went to the movies and we strolled the street and ate popcorn from the street vendor. I also remember going to Duvall Church of Christ Singing and Dinner on the Ground once with the wagon and team. Today the trip would be over in a few minutes but then it was an adventure. I think these trips were nostalgic for Dad because I also remember an A Model Truck. We kept the old iron tired wagon even after we moved to Hoxie. It set in the alley next to our house and we used it to play cowboys and Indians. In those days taking a trip in your mind was almost as good as the real thing. Come to think of it that has never changed. I guess that is why I have a love for reading.
We did ride old Bob and Blue but they were not saddle horses, far from it. Being little changes your prospective on things and my memory may be a little exaggerated but these were very large horses. My big brothers made a burlap saddle out of several layers of burlap bags tied on with a rope around their bellies. It helped a little but setting on top of them was like setting on an elephant. I remember Bobby sliding off of old Bob and landing on his back with the horse standing on his pant leg just below his crouch. It was a good thing he was skinny and the pants were large. I think it was Delbert who finally got the nerves to back the horse up so Bobby could move out of the way of those big hooves. The horses were so big that if you fell or got off in the field you had to find a tree stump or fence to climb up on and remount. I don't think Bobby was looking for a stump that day he made a bee line to the house on foot.
I think our days growing up on our little farm gave me one of life's greatest gifts, the ability to keep things in prospective. Last year we had a really bad ice storm and lost power for a few days. After the initial frustration I begin to think of the old days when we didn't have electric power or natural gas. We lived in a perpetual state of what now is called a disaster we just called it living on the farm.
