Going Up Home & Milking a Cow with Uncle Johnny Mayers

Whenever we would go back to the Louisville, Wamega area for a visit we would say we are going up home. We would go for a weekend and we took turns staying at mom and dad's sides of the family. We would spend the nights at one place but we would take some of the time to go visit a few of the others. Remember, my mom had 11 brothers and sisters in the area and dad was one of seven. One of dad's brothers, Hank, lived in Hawaii so we didn't see him unless he came to our house. Two of his sisters, Pauline and Hazel, lived in California for awhile and then moved to Wamega. That left aunt Vivy (in the huge house and wrap around porch, good climbing trees, and the large yard that went all the way down to a creek) and Uncle Elmer and Aunt Gertie who had adopted a boy named Richard who was my age, in Louisville. However, my very favorite aunt and uncle lived out on a farm! Aunt Mildred (the youngest of dad's sisters) and her husband Uncle Johnny were so much fun. Uncle Johnny called me Stonewall Jackson, I don't really know why---he just did. Kathy, Michelle and I were their littlest neices and they got such pleasure and fun out of us. All the other neices and nephews on dad's side were teenagers and adults by the time us girls came along. We were their "babies". I loved staying out at their place on the farm, there was just so much for a busy little girl to do. Uncle Johnny would take me out to the barn and I'd just hang out with him. He taught me how to milk a cow!! Well, let's say he showed me how to do it, but when I would squeeze the "faucet" it wouldn't work!! He'd show me again and yet when I tried it still wouldn't work. He would laugh till tears came to his eyes---I often had that effect on him! I'll write about mom's side of the family next time, I think this one is long enough---don't want to get boring and lose your attention!