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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH (08/31/17)
Henry kicked the milk bucket hard."Why does it have to be like this..nothing but hard work!" Henry often muttered. Twice a day, morning and evening the cows had to be milked. Henry never liked the smell of the cows. They made his hands dirty and smelly, and then he had to clean their stalls, too. He hated that foul stench.



His mother made him drink the cow's milk. He loathed the scent of it--that same smell of the cow, and it was always warm. They couldn't afford an icebox. Mother had to make clabber because there was no way to keep the milk refrigerated. Clabber was milk with something sweet added to it like sugar, syrup or maybe honey. No matter what she did, it always tasted foul. Henry learned a life-long lesson at this tender age in life. You did your chores; you drank your milk; you did what you had to do whether you liked it or not. It was discipline.



They didn't have enough food at times. People said then what they say now. "If you live on a farm, you will never go hungry." Henry lived on a farm, and his family went hungry.



Critters made hay with the chickens and the eggs. They lost most of the coop that year. About then, cows died. Henry's Dad had to put some of them down and many more were sick. It was bad.



"Cows can't carry their weight," Dad said.



After that, things went from bad to worse. A lot of people had no work. The country was in a deep depression, many people were going hungry and some were desperate. Thieves broke in and cleaned out the smokehouse and the root cellar. Henry's Mother was furious because it was a lot of hard work, all gone. It was a couple of years worth of sweat, tears, and hard labor.



The family got down to nothing. "Can't eat the seed for next year's crop," Dad said. It broke his heart to go to relatives for a handout.



The family missed meals. The longest Henry could remember was three whole days. He didn't understand why there were no jobs or food. He knew it didn't do any good to hold a grudge about doing without. He thought about it and decided it was better to be grateful. It was another life lesson he learned--the importance of being thankful.



Henry grew into a young man and began to reminisce on those early years of his life. There was a turning point. It was when he turned twelve years of age. It was the year his father died. They didn't have the medicine then that they do today. Mother took his passing hard and about six months later she became ill and passed. Then all the family gathered at her graveside.



Henry became an orphan, the eldest of four. The siblings were divided among uncles and aunts. Henry went to live with his aunt. She was a kind woman. If not for her, he would have never finished school. He didn't understand the turn of events, but later he realized that that was the year that changed him most.



As he matured, he sensed the guiding hand of God. Often he was in the midst of anguish crying out "why?" Yet, Henry came to know that the pain in life, no matter how hard, often produced something good.
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This article has been read 599 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Jenny Fulton 
09/07/17
Good job with the storytelling and description of the family's hardship. I would have liked a better idea of the age of the mc at the beginning.
Loni Bowden-Horn 
09/08/17
Good job at pulling us into the story. I liked how you explained clabber in your entry.

Great job storytelling.
Bonnie Bowden 
09/08/17
Your story was very engaging. Farmers have a difficult job.

I would have liked to know how old the MC was earlier in the story.
C D Swanson 
09/08/17
Excellent! Well done.
Blessings~
Larry Whittington
09/09/17
I liked your concluding paragraph.

It seemed that "Henry" could have been an imaginary person who lived in a rural setting during the time of the "great Depression", a family member or even the author himself.

There were several scenes that illustrated life during that time.

One paragraph was showing a contrast of thought. I think I would have written the sentence as follows: "Henry lived on a farm BUT he went hungry."

Nice writing.
Larry Whittington
09/09/17
I liked your concluding paragraph.

It seemed that "Henry" could have been an imaginary person who lived in a rural setting during the time of the "great Depression", a family member or even the author himself.

There were several scenes that illustrated life during that time.

One paragraph was showing a contrast of thought. I think I would have written the sentence as follows: "Henry lived on a farm BUT he went hungry."

Nice writing.
Elaine Hemingway
09/09/17
Great story of Henry as a work in progress and learning to shine. Well done; Keep writing.

Blessings.
Toni Babcock 
09/14/17
One little change in the first sentence might work better for you - instead of repeating the name Henry twice, just say "he often muttered". I find in my writing, this works the best anyway. Great job describing depression years. My mom grew up on a small farm, that I often visited as a child too. She talked about the lard sandwiched they took to school and hard times. I didn't know what clabber was - thanks for the info! I assume the sugar was to dampen the sour taste of spoiling milk and help to stave off bacteria growth...yuk!
Loni Bowden-Horn 
09/14/17
Jay,

Congratulations on 1st place in the Beginner category. You get to move up to the Intermediate division.

Your work keeps on improving every week.

You have a great storytelling ability so I look forward to reading your stories in the future.



C D Swanson 
09/14/17
Congratulations Jay!
Well done
Blessings~
Bonnie Bowden 
09/14/17
Congratulations on your 1st place win in the Beginner's category. I look forward to reading more of your stories.