Keeping your Hands Warm

My father, Bob, grew up in a small town in southern Alberta, Canada. He was the eleventh child of fourteen born to his parents. He lived on a farm as many people did at that time. They worked hard and they ate what they grew.

Bobby was only ten years old the year that the stock market crashed in New York. Because they lived on a farm, they were fortunate that they were never hungry. He said of his mother that no one who wanted food was turned away hungry either.

During the summer time, the children went everywhere bare foot. It was only when the cold came in the fall, that they put on shoes. Probably those shoes got recycled through as many children as they could before being completely worn out.

Hill Spring was a little farm town. Bob's family had a barn and fields along side of the house. I assume that the town had the traditional one room school house where children of all ages were taught by one teacher in one classroom. Alberta gets extremely cold in the winter time. When Bobby left for school, he had a baked potato in each pocket. He would put his hands in his pockets and keep them warm. When lunch time came, he eat those same potatoes for his lunch.

I do not know how Bobby kept his hands warm on the way home from school. Probably there was warm bread waiting for him when he got home.