What happens at the butcher shop stays at the butcher shop

Vitality Stories

Bonnie with work horses

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I’m excited to continue sharing excerpts of Bonnie’s memoirs. As is my practice, I strove to capture her memories word-for-word out of respect for her voice, recollection, and perspective.

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Overnight biscuits and cold cuts

Bonnie shares:

We used to have to thresh our grain every year. Threshing crews would thresh the grain and put it in silos or granaries, and farmers would get together and help each other with each farm, going from one farm to the next to do the work.

Threshing season was a fun time for kids. This one time, my dad and I were going to another farm to help, and my mother said, “Now don’t forget Bonnie this time.” Evidently I had been forgotten somewhere before. Well, he forgot me—again. So I spent the night at the neighbors place, and I had the best time. They had three boys, and I was an only child at that time so I had no one to play with at home.

The next day it was our turn to have the crew at our house. I was so happy—you know I love to eat. My mother would make these wonderful overnight biscuits for the crew, and we would have to go into town mind you and buy store bought lunchmeat for them.

We went this one time and my mother asked for twenty-five cents worth of bologna, and at that time it was quite a bit of money. She was talking and laughing with the butcher who was a young guy, and I thought something seemed kind of strange but it wasn’t my business, and my mom ended up with a dollar worth of lunchmeat for twenty-five cents. When we got outside, I asked her, “Who was that guy?”

“Oh, he’s just an old fling,” my mother said.

Fling? Fling? Well to me at that age, a fling would be the end of a match so I said, “Well, what do you mean?”

“He was my boyfriend at one time BUT we do not tell your dad about this,” she said.

And I didn’t. I figured that’s true. We wouldn’t tell my dad about something like this.

~Bonnie

What I learned

Bonnie reminds me that children are often more perceptive than adults give them credit for. They are five-sense-sponges and they so easily connect the dots between what they hear and what they see. Interpreting body language is a cinch for them. And because they will do almost anything to spare a loved one’s feelings, children can be the best secret keepers, sometimes to their detriment.

My parents had many secrets between them. Some were harmless and funny such as this one.

Ever the prankster, my mom once played a joke on my dad and he never learned the truth even though most of us kids had the inside scoop. When my dad came home late at night after a few drinks, he’d turn on all the lights and wake everyone up so one night my mom went around and loosened all the bulbs before he came home. “Don’t tell your father.”

It just about drove him mad that none of the switches were working, and he had no choice but to go to bed. Early the next morning before he woke up, my mom retightened all the bulbs. I think we all slept well and it was a secret worth keeping. Still makes me giggle picturing him the next morning, scratching his head and staring up at the glowing kitchen light.

As always, I’m grateful for your time and input. Have a wonderful week and thank you for being you.

Teri