I always felt that I was one of Granddad’s favorite grand kids as we always had a great relationship. He seemed like a gruff guy who could cuss and was not afraid to let you know his mind. But down inside he had a heart of gold. He was a Farmer and a Florist by trade and although his schooling was only through grade school he taught himself how to be successful in business. He had a large greenhouse which consisted of around 8 buildings in which he raised from seed everything from carnations, gladiolas, and just about every kind of flowers for the local gardeners to buy from him. He also raised all kinds of vegetable plants in the spring. He also farmed around 160 acres of river bottom sandy land in which he raised all kinds of fruits and vegetables to sell from his greenhouse. He was very proud of his work and employed several people to work for him.
Granddad had a special way to greet you as he would grab you just above the knee and with his big hand, squeeze your leg and laugh and say horse bite. He was very special to me as he molded me into knowing a good work ethic and the value of everything in life. We would go to the field, which was 2 miles east of town, early in the morning, come in for a meal at noon, and if there was a baseball game on the TV we would watch it as my granddad was a true baseball fan. He had his favorite team, the Dodgers, but would watch any game before we went back to the field. After our restful nap watching baseball we would go back to the field to finish the day.
I remember that he always wore a tie even out to the field in over 100 degree weather. It was fun to play in the greenhouses with rows and rows of flowers and vegetables plants. As I got a little older he would put me to work watering, weeding, or putting a new load of cut flowers that had came in for a wedding or funeral. One summer he told me that he wanted me to work for him both in the greenhouse and also out on the farm where he raised all kinds of vegetables to sell. He started me out at $12.50 a week and as a kid around 10 years old that seemed like a lot of money. He was one of the first organic farmers as he didn’t believe in insecticides. Therefore one of my first jobs for him was to pick of tomato worms off the plants and put them in a can of kerosene. We also had to pick off potato bugs. Of course our biggest job was hoeing and pulling weeds. Granddad didn’t want to find a single weed. I remember one time several of us was hoeing weeds out of the rows of melons and vegetables when he came to me and said he wanted me to drive the tractor up and down the rows of corn packing the newly planted seeds. This was something he discovered that give him a higher corn plant count. So off I went to drive the tractor while the others had to hoe weeds all day. I really got teased from the other workers as they call me granddad’s favorite. One time when I had this job driving the tractor as I was turning around at the end of the row I got too close to the irrigation ditch and over the tractor went on its side. Luckily I didn’t get hurt but we had to get another tractor to pull it out.
He raised many acres of each watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sweet corn. They were prone to have what he called lice on them ruining the production of fruit. I think they were aphids as they would attack the leaves and the plants would die. We had to dust them with lime powder which helped control them. One year he was the talk of the town as he ordered 100,000 ladybugs.When they came in to the local post office here was this box full of bugs. When we went up town to pick them up they ask him what on earth he was going to do with them. When he said he was going to turn them loose out in the fields, they thought he was crazy. You see the ladybugs would only eat other bugs that ate the plants. So there we were out in the field turning loose all these bugs. Later when it came time to harvest everything he showed me how to pick a ripe watermelon, by thumping them with your finger and to listen for a low pitch sound. A high pitch sound meant that they were still green. But the best test he showed me was to cut one open and just eat the heart out, and to this day I have a hard time picking through the seeds. Cantaloupe were much easier as they turned a golden color when ripe. We would load the truck and a trailer full and head to town. He would sell everything at his greenhouse. People would drive many miles to buy fruit and vegetables that had the best taste around. Some of his watermelons would weigh over 100 lbs. I remember he sold the watermelons for 2 cents a LB and cantaloupe for 6 cents a LB.
In 1951 we had a massive rain storm across Kansas which flooded all the rivers. The water got so high that it washed out a lot of bridges. Granddad always raised hogs to sell at market and since he farmed river bottom land we had to go and move all the hogs before they drowned. It was quite a job rounding up 100 head of pigs. We watched as the water got higher and higher across most of his farm. We didn’t have to irrigate for a while that year. After the water had gone down to normal we had to replant most of the fields as the flooding would ruin the plants. We also had to clear the logs that had washed up and blocked the low water bridge. We was busy clearing when Granddad announced that he had to take a dump. To my shock he walked over the edge of the bridge, pulled his pants down and proceeded to do his business . Then with his usual joking loud voice he yelled “hey Gary, come over here, and swat these pesky flies off my butt.” and then let out this laugh as I was on my way to see what he wanted. He always pumped water out of the river to water everything. One of my jobs at the first of the year was to dive under water to clear the pump. We would then fire up the tractor and pump 8 inch water pipe of water either to a irrigation ditch or to pipes of sprinklers. This made everything grow well in this hot climate of Kansas. Another job we had was to castrate the pigs and granddad always believed that if you let them get quite large they would recover better. Most farmers would do this job when they were real small. Well he would get his knife real sharp and then it was our job to hold them down. They would squeal and kick as it would take 2 or 3 of us to hold them down.
In the greenhouse I helped with preparing flowers for making large arrangements for funerals and weddings. It was amazing to me how he could take all these flowers and arrange them into master pieces. We would harvest flowers from the greenhouse but at certain times of the year he would have to ship them in by bus. These large boxes of flowers would have to have there stems cut and put in gallon jars of water and put in the cooler. This was a job that I could handle until one day I broke a jar and cut my wrist and had to go get stitches at the doctor. We had to water all the plants everyday so with hoses running all over this was another job I would help with. There were windows in the top of the greenhouse that had to be opened if the temperature got to hot. I would go through each house and crank the wheel to open them. Also we had to spray liquid lime on the glass to cut down on the heat. I would help with the hose while granddad would spray away. In the winter time as it would get quite cold he had coal fired furnaces that had to be maintain to keep the flower from freezing. We would stoke them all full just before bedtime. He also had portable kerosene heaters we had to fire up in some of the houses.
As kids do we would throw rocks and as you know a greenhouse is all glass. Granddad was very protective of all that glass as he had to replace it when broken. He was always getting after us kids if he caught us throwing things. On day Keith and I was harvesting sweet potato plants from sand beds to be planted later. This bird kept dive bombing us as she must have had a nest near by. The plants were growing off full sized potatoes and well without thinking I grabbed one and let fly at this pesky bird. Just as I let it go I realized it was headed for the green house. I hollered “Oh No” just as it hit the glass, banging from roof to roof. We really got busy as we knew granddad would soon be there cussing us out. By some miracle It didn’t break a glass. But granddad did come out and ask what was going on out here. We just kind of shrug our shoulders and got back to work. We would wrap these plants in newspaper soaked in water. This would keep them until planting. Granddad had this old antique planter which he would pull behind a tractor. It had two seats on the back about 12 inches off the ground where we would set and plant the plants in the ground. It had a double disc which we would lower and from the water tank a lever would click and put in water and that was when would stick the plants in. Sometimes we would get off timing and miss the water. Well when granddad would look over his planted field, here was dieing plants that had missed the water. He would get after us and show us once more how to plant with the water. I wished I had that old planter as it was so much fun riding on the back doing our job.
They always say that behind every successful man there is a women. Well my grandma Alflen was about everything to us all. She was always there for help in the greenhouse and always had the meals prepared on time. I remember those special tastes that only she could prepare. Fried potatoes served with meat and vegetables. She had a special way she prepared sweet potatoes. She would boil them in the skins and then peel them and cut them in half inch strips and then coat them with sugar and fry them until golden brown. To this day I can’t seem to duplicate this taste. For breakfast it was usually bacon and eggs with pancakes. Her pancakes was always cooked in oblong shapes instead of round. I don’t know if granddad realized it but she was always there for him even if he was at times harsh to her. She always attended church every week and I can still see her reading her bible and praying for all of us. Later in life she became ill and was in the hospital with pneumonia. Mom and I was there with her as she got worse and was unconscious. She would forget to breath so we would have to tell her to take another breath. The next morning she past in her sleep. This really hit my granddad hard as now he realized how much he depended on her. All those years he talked about putting in a bathroom as she had to use the outhouse. A cold experience in the middle of winter. He finally put one in after she was gone. He spent years in limbo as he missed her. He did hire several house keepers to cook and clean for him. One day I received a call that granddad was down and to come right away. When I got there they said he had died in the bathroom. I was 20 by this time and the only relative in town so they wanted me there. They told me that when they were going to remove his body from the bathroom that I could leave but I though I owed my granddad the dignity to stay with him. As they couldn’t get the gurney in the bathroom they had to put a blanket under him and carry him out. Granddad was a little on the heavy side so as they brought him out his head would bang on the floor. Even though I knew he wasn’t there it bothered me to hear that thud. I was able to say my goodbye and then begin calling relatives about the bad news. To this day I miss him greatly.
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