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There was no spare money for me on the farm, and no way to get any. It made no difference that a coke or candy bar was 5 cents. I didn't have 5 cents. So, I started brainstorming. My first idea was to sell greeting cards for the Cheerful Card Company. After I got my selling kit and samples, I set out selling door to door. The main problem was, or one of them, in Wing it was typically a long way between doors. Maybe a mile. That was a big drawback. Plus, most of the neighbors did not have much money, either. I soon had to scrap that idea.
Robert Compton and Charley Foss raised rabbits. When a litter was about half grown, a truck came around and bought them. So, somehow I got enough money together to buy me a couple of does. I could not afford a buck, however, and I had to carry my doe to Robert's house, or to Charlie Foss to get them bred. Once I arrived at Charlie's and half a dozen of his big German shepherd dogs surrounded me and the rabbit, growling and barking. Fortunately, just before we became a meal for them, Charlie finally came out and called them off. When a doe gives birth, she pulls out white hair from her chest and lines the nest with it. I was so excited when my first litter was born! After I had sold a few, I bought a buck. The enterprise did not prosper well, though. Often, for some unknown reason, the doe would kill her young. After a year or two, I totaled up my books. I was twelve dollars and twelve cents in the hole! I dispensed with the enterprise and bought a hog. The sow was bad to roll over on her young, however, and after a year or two I totaled up my books. I was fifteen dollars and fifteen cents in the hole. Another bust!
Harold had trapped mink a lot in high school, and I knew he had sometimes sold a mink fur to Sears and Roebuck for thirty dollars, so I decided to become a trapper. I started trapping with Harold's traps. He was in the Air Force then, and I used his. I started so young that I would have to get Dad to set two traps, carry them a mile or two, and set them out. That was a learning process, however, and it took a long time to get proficient. I kept this up through high school, and a typical winter's catch would be 20 possums at 10-25 cents each, 10-12 coons at around a dollar each, and one or two mink at 12-18 dollars each. I usually began my trap line about sundown, after my chores were done, and I would walk two or three miles through the woods, mostly after dark. A flashlight was not in the budget. I began wondering recently how I did that in the dark, and then I thought back to what some of my friends in Africa had told me. They guarded the 30 acre compound housing the orphanage Barb and I worked at. They never carried a light, and moved around all night where Black Mamba's thrived. They laughed at Barbara and me, carefully lighting up our path when we walked at night. Finally, they told me that we Americans had used “torches” at night so much we had lost our night vision. I think that must be true.
During my trapping years, I prepared “stink Bait” in the summer. After cleaning a mess of fish, I put the remains in a fruit jar, sealed it up, and set it out beside the fence. By winter time, it had distilled down to a nice brown liquid. In the winter, a drop or two around the trap brought the possums right in. Somehow, I just never fully realized the impact this had on my high school social life. I just knew I sure was alone a lot. Romance did not come into my life until my possum trapping career was over.
My next post will be Wednesday. Thanks for reading!
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