The Parker Place

See the picture on the right of my dad in 1930 standing by his stationary engine that powered what looks like the pump for the well....Sure it was a thing of pride in 1930 not to have to grab that pump handle and take it up and down, up and down until either your arms fell off, or the water tank or buckets got full.. Farmers of old never suffered an overwieght problem and for darn good reason. They were busting there butts from daylight to dusk everyday. It's a wonder I am even typing this, but I guess when the sun went down, even at 46 my dad still had a gleam in his eye, and here I is......

But anyway the title here is "The Parker Place", and it still to this day exist, and I must when I get home take my camera there and take voo koo pictures of everthing in sight as soon the bulldozers will no doubt arrive.. It is located just south of the new Hospital that has risen along I65 in Lafayette. With the arrival of the hospital and other things like the new Journal Courier printing complex and Catipillar logistics building, I know its days are surely numbered...

But dad took me there maybe just a couple years before he died, and we walked over it and he told me many stories about the house and the corn crib that is still there and I must see if also this old shed behind him is there also, and if it is I must stand in the exact location of my mentor and have someone take that picture...

Dad farmed in those days pretty big, 240 acres with a full time hired man and a great wife, some youngins and 13 horses...He and his man would both hitch up 6 horse teams some days for tillage work and believe me in those days tillage meant tillage...It did not mean miniumum till or conservation till it meant kill as dam many weeds as you could, and you did this about 6 times before you ever even thought of planting anything. No chemicals in those days at all, it was man and his wits against everthing they faced....And weeds were huge...I distictly remember one day walking around the corn fields with him after being talked into the business end of hoe, the manual labor type hoe, and we were working pretty hard on a huge patch of canada thistle.

I said, "Dad why the hell did God ever allow these darn weeds anyway? He thought a bit, and then said, "God did not do it son, it was satin he plants them". I said, "well does he do it ever night"? Dad said, "yeal I think maybe he does"...True story will never forget it, as it is the short term memory is starting to go, not the real important stuff, like farming 101 on the south 40...

But now I get to brag, as my Dad was an early inovator also in those days...He purchased one of the first tractors..It was a Moline and it actually looked like a big gravely garden tractor as you will see....And it even had an electric starter and lights....And I love this story that was told to me maybe 12-15 years back by a Mr. Korty who was younger than, but new my dad well. He said to me once while I was selling seed corn to his sons, "Your dad was the hardest working farmer I ever knew in my life." I could tell he meant it also by his voice, and it did not do any damage to my ego, and assesment of a great father. He said, "one night we were coming home about maybe 9 or 10 and it was dark", but he said "your dad did not have a manure speader at the time and he had loaded manure on his hay wagon and was out there in the field. He had that Moline going slow with the lights on and he was back on that wagon pitching that manure off as fast as a spreader would have done it"...
I am so grateful to that also great farmer, and father of many likewise sons, that has since passed but what a picture to remember......

One other thought or fact of that day. The Halsmer family lived next door thus the location of the Halsmer airport that is since gone. But have hear many stories about how they actually built their first airplane from a model T engine I think he said, and learned to fly it all by themselves.
He said he would watch them for days they would run it across the fields and then stop before hitting the fense....until one day one of them finally said, "well here goes", and he gave it all it had and lifted off and cleared the fence...The rest is history, they all flew and were pilots in the war and commercial pilots and then had the airport that Lafayette probably wished they had embrased and taken over...Well maybe not cause then maybe I would not have met sweetie at Purdue, but maybe Halsmers who knows.... till tomorrow......