Gerald W. Smith Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Gerald W. Smith
Jack always walked a half a length ahead of Nebb whether he was pul
load of corn to rrarket or plowing corn or what it was, Jack was alw
there--nervous animal.
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Well, I1mtellingthis story because one Saturday when I was workin for
Glenn, I recall vividly, we were making hay. It was a dry smr
was kind of hard to come by and Glenn had bought the cutting f'rom a farm
about two miles away and we'd gone down there one Saturday af'ternoo . Because
the hay was so sparse lt took us most of the afternoon to loa two
loads of hay, we had to do a lot of driving to get a load of hay. So we
got back to the barnyard with that hay around five o'clock or sorething like
I that and it was Saturday eat. Glenn said to me, "Gerald, I don't have
any canvasses or anything to cover this hay with, would you mind if we went
t
ahead and put it in the mw? We' 11 be late toni@S?t , but would you mind?"
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No, I didn't care, so we went to mow the hay. He had a rather interesting
barn--there were several of them in that area--I don't know what the influence
was, but instead of the barn door being at the end of the barn, which
meant you pulled the load up to the end and then pulling the hay on a fork,
these different barns had a driveway throu@ the dddle of the barn with a
mw on either side. I suppose in the days before the big lift forks they
could then pitch the hay off the wagon on either side. Well, we drove the
load in there, Glenn was setting the fork and I was over in the mw mowing
the hay. Ruth, his wife, was driving the mules Jack and Nebb on the hay
fork but we couldn't see her because she was out at the end of the barn.
We had gotten one or two fork lifts off into the mw and just as Glenn
was about ready to set the fork for another one, all of a sudden Ruth began
to scream and yell., the fork flew up and hit the track and went down to the
end of the bm. He had a little road imre that was kind of a nuisance,
she d corn up and teased those dam^ mles until they ran away. (lawter)
They ran off across the lot, broke the singletrees, tore up the h ~ s and s
went over in the comer of the barn lot and were just standing there, We
jwnped off and went around there--there was nothing wrong with Ruth, she
was just screanhg. Glenn stood there and surveyed the scene. Here it was
six o'clock on Saturday nidt, the harness was broken up and the singletrees
were broken. Glenn surveyed the scene, looked at those two mules,
and said, "I'm sure glad they haven't forgotten how to rm awaiy . " (laughter)
Q. Oh, that's marvelous.
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I I A. So this was the kind of a temper that this man had.
Q. Well, we're mst at the end of this side of the tape, I'd like to,
adn hazard a kind of pulling together here, Gemy. I do it this way so
that you can set the record straight if I misinterpret. But it sounds as
thou@ this arrangement involving Glenn Steele particularly, came jUt at
the time when you were ready to really start feeling your oats, branching
out, developing your own ideas, your own style of doing thins, and that
he gave you or seem to have given you a very supportive kind of f'riendship,
encouraging you to do things your own way, not arbitrarfly saying, "No, not
that way, you got to do it this way," but giving you a chance to try yoself,
Is this a fair question?