The Red Flannel Rag

years and was very run down. There was no running water and an outside toilet. There

were cracks in the outside walls of the house that we could see light coming through.

After we moved in, Dad had me to help him move our hay from Goldie’s barn to

our barn. I was helping him unload a wagon full of hay bales into the loft. We got all the

hay in; but when he stepped off the wagon into the barn to help me stack the hay, the

whole barn collapsed. I was thrown clear, but he was buried deep among the hay bales.

I called his name and when he answered, I started crying. The only thing that happened

to us was that he lost his glasses and had to buy a new pair.

After the barn collapsed, we had no place to keep the hay for the cows. We could

not afford to build another barn so, luckily, Grandma Molly had a chicken house she

wanted moved or torn down. Dad tore the chicken house down in sections and rebuilt it

in a spot of level land near the collapsed barn. The building was free except for the hard

work of tearing it down and rebuilding it. The chicken house replacement for the

collapsed barn still stands on the home place.

After the scare we had with the barn falling in, Mom and I went to work trying to

patch some of the cracks in the house so we wouldn’t freeze in the cold months ahead.

We used newspapers and old blankets to stuff the cracks shut. She put a blanket over

the back door to the cellar and nailed the door shut for the winter.

Mom worried about us being cold, so every night she stoked the coal stove in the

living room until the stovepipe was red hot nearly all the way to the ceiling. I heard her

say she was scared the house would burn down with all of us in it. My brothers, Larry

and John, slept together in one upstairs bedroom and my sister, Brenda, and I shared

another upstairs bedroom. Mom warmed old bricks and rocks, filled bottles with hot

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