The Top of the Mountain

As humans, we just cannot sustain a constant Mad Hatter style dashing about and the eternal engagement in nothing less than the pithiest issues. Every now and again, a reprieve is necessary to the maintenance of at least a semblance of sanity. And so, I pause, reminisce, relive and report on those moments in my day-to-day life be they current or simply the fondest of memories.

In the childhood life of a Nelson living on the Reva farm, there was little opportunity for boredom or for that matter, trouble, at least not any serious trouble. The occasional misbehavior, resulting in no TV, no dessert or being grounded, will have to be a story for another day.

I am often drawn to thoughts of summers spent with my siblings at the farm under the rule of a father who adamantly believed in child labor. The truth is he believed that everyone should labor and children were no exception.

Knowing full well that no one else in their right mind would employ us before the age of 12 or 13, he designed a work plan that would include even the youngest at the tender age of six. There was always a job, and we were compensated financially for our endeavors.

Hard at it by 6:30am, we would work until about noon. I think he began to feel sorry for us when it got really hot and would change the schedule of activities after lunch. The mornings were spent in fruitful tasks that varied with the season. Often we walked behind a wagon clearing the fields of loose rocks or spent the hours chopping thistles and “skunk” cabbage, burning creek banks, repairing fences or worming the sheep.

During hay making season my size limited my ability to contribute; I was assigned the job of driving the tractor while the bigger children picked up the bales. No matter how hard I tried, I invariably threw someone off the wagon with my consistent clutch popping. Dad would get pretty upset, but the boys would just laugh.

Weekends brought a welcome afternoon of free time much of it being spent in the woods on the top of Bruce’s Mtn., building forts, flying off into space in the most fantastic rocket ship or saving the world from all the bad guys with our six shooters.

Today the rocket ship has disappeared, but a few newly fallen trees have become the latest fantasy. Oh, but for the presence of children with limitless imaginations.

The mountain top remains a source of simple, exciting, unsupervised and boundless fun. Stay tuned for more reports from the top of the mountain.

Until next time, be well.