Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

An Experience and History, January 29, 2000

Do You Remember?

Have you ever seen such a quiet snow in Nebraska?

The snow has been falling ever so gently out side my window for three days now during the last week of January. On this morning I felt I just had to get out of the house and go for a walk. I bundled up in my tan coat. Now, this coat is not for beauty-I bought it at the thrift store just for this type of occasion. It’s a smooth cotton coat that won’t pick up the burrs; it has a warm fur lined hood, and also has a drawstring at the bottom to keep out the winter wind. Our dog Chief was so happy to see that someone was finally going to take him for a walk. Chief and I didn’t mind the snow was falling out of the sky, because we were both warm in our winter coats.

Chief seemed to have an inner sense of where I wanted to go. I followed him up the mowed path leading to the ponds. From the top of the hill the two ponds looked frozen with white ice. I could see the creek running to the west of the ponds and beyond the creek the alfalfa field resembling a white comforter made of the softest down. Snowflakes, icy ponds and chickadees in the trees rendered a perfect Christmas picture. We traveled down past the ponds and up through the tall grass. The snow made each weed and each blade of the bluestem grass important and heavy. Walking in this tall grass was more difficult for both dog and I, but on we went to the north end of the farm, to the ruins of the old Sharp home. We stopped to look at the old foundation s holding the snow like frames on the ground. The buggy tracks and 1940 tire tracks, in the beaten down road to the old place, were white with snow, like it had just been driven on yesterday. How secure this place must have been to these pioneers. The silence up here caused my ears to ring. I would have thought the world had stopped if it hadn’t been for the hawk overhead. Unfortunately, this world has stopped for our Sharp ancestors who can here in 1902. Once again, I am reminded, by looking at these ruins, how quickly life goes by and how very blessed I am.

Our next stop to ponder was the draw to the north of the Sharp water pump. This draw runs east and west containing many cedar trees. I am sure that somewhere north of the old house, maybe over the hill in this draw, are the covered remains of the home of Charles Townsend, the first owners of our property. Charles homesteaded our farm. I have sent for proof of homestead records. I know he lived in a 16 ft x 20 ft house with two doors and two windows. He and his wife, Elizabeth Peery, were the first people to be married in Franklin County. His final proof of homestead papers says his family included three children. I want to think that somewhere around this draw there should still echo the newborn baby cries of their three children. (A story for another day)

This draw is naturally planted so heavily with evergreens it takes on the look of Colorado mountains. The trees have grown so tall in the past 20 years. I found this out when I looked for my fallen cottonwood tree, when I was all ready to perch on its trunk and sit and rest. Well, I found my fallen tree, but the cedars were so grown over it there was no place to sit down. Once upon a time, I took this walk with a different dog-our old collie dog named Daisy. She was the best dog we ever had. About fifteen years before, her patience waned, as I sat upon this tree and she looked at me as if to say. ‘Are we going?’ I can still see her heading home down the lane, not waiting for me.

Now, Chief and I walked on east to the end and dropped sown in the deep draw among the snow-covered trees and walked back to the west. Way down under these trees I had to bend in half to get under and through the thick trees. On the ground were the tracks of rabbit and deer. What a wonderful place to get out of winters elements. If I was an animal, this is where I would go when the wind blows, but I think the turkey already know that.

Chief ran about 5 miles while I walked one mile. He meandered in and out of the path, up and down the hill, smelling every bush and tree. While on his adventure to the top of the draw and north had he seen something? Back to me he ran, looking back while running to my side. I looked and didn’t see anything. A few years ago upon coming to my favorite place, I saw about 20 pheasants fly out of this draw. I will tell you that if you come here in the heat of summer, it’s so cool among the cedars and if you close your eyes and listen to the wind blowing through the evergreens, you can almost smell the mountain pines.

I did something haven’t done for 45 years on this walk. I had stopped to enjoy the sight of the draw by a green tree. Right in front of my eyes was a branch with three different layers of snow. The day’s snow was as light as a feather. Almost without thinking, I stuck out my tongue and scooped up some of the fresh top layer of snow into my mouth. I did it-germs or no germs, acid snow or not. And …don’t you know…it still tasted the same as childhood snow; the kind of snow that I gathered in the dishpan, for grandma to make snow cream with. Somehow grandmas don’t ever age, do they? More about our walk up the creek next week.

O the snow, the beautiful snow! How the flakes gather and laugh as they go!
Whirling about in its maddening fun, and even the dogs, with a bark and an bound,
Snap at the crystals that hurry around. James Watson

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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