Going to Aunt Barbara's House

When I was about ten or eleven, Mother’s sister, my Aunt Barbara, came back to the United States. She and Uncle Jess had been agricultural missionaries in Brazil, but had returned to live in Grandview, in the Yakima Valley. Mother always said that they returned because my cousin Jack was turning sixteen, and would be subject to military service in Brazil at that age. They came home for regular home leave, and just never returned. I think that Uncle Jess’s parents were probably getting old enough that they wanted him to take over the running of their family fruit ranch. At any rate, that is what happened. We often went over to Grandview to visit them during our summer vacation.

I had always been a city child, so staying on a farm was a new and exciting experience. The first time we visited, the older Wyants were still living on the ranch, so our family stayed in an old house that had once been for the hired man and his family. It had no electricity or running water, so I learned all about lamps that had to be lit with matches and out houses. There was a pump at the kitchen sink, so that was a new experience as well. I can remember that we used the bathroom at the farmhouse, whenever we got the chance, and always took our bath up there. My mother took this primitive living in stride, but my father was from New York City, and I think it was an interesting experience for him, too.

The farmhouse was quite large, and very comfortable. In later years, Mary Lou and I had a bedroom upstairs. The only problem with this room was the bees. Uncle Jess kept a beehive outside the bedroom window, and during the hot summer we needed to keep that window open, or swelter. Sometimes a bee or two would get inside, and I remember that once, Mary Lou stepped on one and got stung on her foot.

That farm had lots of attractions, however. We often went swimming in the irrigation ditches. They were delightfully cool, and not so deep that I ever felt nervous swimming in them. We had the run of the farmyard, and loved to climb around in the barn and over the tractors and other equipment when it wasn’t in use. We also could play in the haystack. I remember it as being pretty sticky and scratchy, probably more straw than hay. There was also an old wood and coal stove out by the barn, and we could use it to play house. I had never before seen such a stove, and my mother and Auntie Barbara explained to us how it worked. I suppose it had been in the farmhouse kitchen at one time.

There was a vineyard in the front of the house, and some cows were kept confined by an electric fence in another pasture. Uncle Jess only kept the electricity on the fence for short periods, to save money, but the cows could recognize the buzzing sound made when the juice was on, and only stayed away from the fence during that time. The rest of the time they seemed to know that it was just a plain old fence, and leaned against it whenever they felt like it. I think my uncle wished his cows weren’t quite so smart.

Mostly, the farm was an orchard, raising apricots, cherries, prunes, peaches and apples. We were sometimes allowed to pick the fruit for money. My oldest cousin, Jack, wasn’t too happy about that. He was given the job of picking after us, to make sure that the trees were picked clean. Since we took all the easy fruit, it meant that he wasn’t making as much money as he could have. He was a teenager, five years older than I was, and he was earning serious money in the orchards. Most of the other pickers were Mexican itinerant farm workers. They seemed to be able to communicate quite well with my uncle, although he spoke Portuguese and they spoke Spanish. I remember once when the Mexicans were making some comments about us picking in the orchards. They didn’t think it was a proper job for little girls to do. At least, that is what Uncle Jess told us.

We could easily walk into Grandview to go to the store, or to visit my cousin’s grandparents. Ann and David were four and five years younger that I was, so they had more free time to play with us. Once, Jack took me driving in his car. We went up to the Rattlesnake Hills, and at one point he was speeding down a stretch of road at 100 miles an hour. I know that he was showing off for me. I had never before been out riding in a car that wasn’t driven by an adult. I probably got him into trouble, because I remember telling my parents about it when we got home.

Aunt Barbara had a vegetable garden, and I remember thinking it was wonderful to be able to go out to the garden to pick something to eat for dinner. They also raised chickens for the table. One summer Uncle Jess had a new batch of chicks. He let each of us children have a chick. We played and played with them. They were so soft and fuzzy. I still remember how awful I felt when my chick died from being handled too much.

When my own children were small, my mother took them over to visit Aunt Barbara. They went over on the Greyhound bus. Uncle Jess took some home movies while they were there, and gave them to us. They show the boys having the same kinds of fun that Mary Lou and I had had. My cousin David was college age then, and he let the older boys drive the tractor around the farmyard while sitting on his lap. Watching those movies brings back wonderful memories.