Part 6 (2/2)

As late as 1940 I knew ed men ould not use the word ”bull” before a woman One old far to I believe the time will come when men and women will use the word 'bull' inof it”

But that was in far country In cattle country it was different I'll bet a ranch boy wouldn't have knohat a surley was One ofto a farmer who had some calves he wanted to sell to the rancher He told the rancher, ”Three of those calves are still nursing” Well, hter had to put forth an effort to hold back their laughter They were not used to nursing calves In cattle country calves don't nurse, they suck

Continuing along that saer, I never heard the words ”sex” or ”male” or ”female” used except by sohth grades, when I had to fill out certain school papers and was told to put an M for male or an F for female, there was a wee bit of eender words The use of the word ”sex” was still guarded against, except in writing The as never spoken in h

And speaking of dirty-mouthed kids-no one in our family ever used any kind of dirty words, at least not in reith are in their seventies now and I can truthfully say, I can not recall ever having heard one of them ”cuss” nor utter a dirty word

We have all heard of that proverbial corner around which prosperity is lurking Well, at the Exuht into it We got a telephone

I'm sure we didn't have a telephone at the Flint place But by about the tihborhood had one There were ht or ten parties on the same line

We owned our own telephone, put up our own lines, and bought our own batteries Having so e step forward at that time in the history of our coht up twelve o'clock-the operator would ring a long, long ring We could set our clocks by it and we could listen to the weather forecast iot the weather information, probably froo, or ot it, most of us listened to it and were stuck with it

In the above paragraph I said the operator would ring That's not exactly right It's true, she was a woman operator And we kids knew she was a woman, but we didn't know she was an operator We only knew her as ”Central” As far as ere concerned, her naht just as well have been Mrs Central

At any rate, anted to ring someone on our line, out our direction fro their ring For instance, our ring was a long and four shorts But, if anted to talk to someone on a line out another direction froet her to connect our line to the other line Then she would ring that party for us

When any of us tried and tried to ring Central and couldn't get her to answer, naturally all the phones on our line would be ringing at the sahbor on our line would volunteer to ring for us and help us get through to Central Perhaps the neighbor's phone had a strongerat the sah to her We tried everything

Come to think of it, there was the possibility that Central's phone had been ringing fro It was just barely possible that she was eating a sandwich in another room And of course, we shouldn't overlook the possibility that she ht have been out in the little house backed up to the alley

Speaking of getting through to the operator, let h to me Now, on this particular day, Frank was the operator He was in co cotton Frank, being the oldest and the one ould have to answer to Papa if the work didn't get done, orking hard and ay out ahead of the rest of us I was the youngest and least and ay behind, but not too far behind to be able to talk to Earl and Joel

After awhile Frank looked back and found us doing a lot of standing and talking and not et to work We did for awhile because we knew Frank was boss But again we got to talking ain, ”Get to work back there!”

Now, I knoas hard on Frank, he being the oldest and having all the responsibility for getting the hoeing done It was hard on est with no responsibility

Finally Frank got so far ahead that it seemed not so necessary to obey him Some of us read the Bible with that saone so far ae need not obey hi and getting further behind, just as Frank knew about us boys that day Anye got ot ain ”Get to work back there!”

Earl looked at me and said, ”Tell him to come and make you”

Now, Earl alas one to reco he wouldn't do for anything But Earl also knew me and he was reasonably sure I would do it That would leave hiet to see the fun His pleasure would be twofold He would glory in the thought that he had causedthat we both knew I shouldn't do and he would enjoy seeingwhich he knew I had needed otten

At the saer to show off and furnish entertainment for my ”fans” So, I shouted back, ”Come and make me!”

And Frank did just that

I kneas coot to me I kneould hurt and I knew I deserved every bit of it But it was funny-in a way

By the tiot to me I was flat on hing hindered ed to keep him at bay for awhile