 |
| Map of Homestead, Oak Harbor, Ohio |
I grew up in a different
time, one that you may never be able to understand or have the opportunity to
emulate. It was northern Ohio, there is a little place called Bay Township, County
Road 114, RR # 2… the RR is for Rural Route.
We lived on about 5 acres, next to a creek that my Mom called the “shit
ditch.” My first recollection of being
outside alone was when I was four-years old, exploring the homestead and
playing in the creek. My days centered on
playing outdoors, building tree houses, go carts, totem pole trees and literally
living off the land at times.
 |
| My Sister Peggy |
We always
had a big garden that we all worked in it, so when you got hungry while playing
that is where you went to refuel. There
were five of us kids and as the youngest with two brothers and two sisters
there was never a shortage of people telling you what to do. When winter would arrive
 |
Me tilling garden
|
we would spend every
minute of the weekend on the ice, skating up our creek across the river to play
hockey with all the neighbors. We were
country folk but we had lots of neighbors and friends…
Starting at an early age the
boys all trapped muskrat, season started in September and ran through February. During the summer we all worked, either on
farms or mowing grass and during the winter we trapped, making
 |
Muskrat
|
money for
Christmas. When I was 12 years old I got
my first shotgun, a 20-gage Ithaca pump, used of course and I was so happy to
get it…I had arrived!
A typical day for me during
trapping season, would be; get up at 4 AM, tie on my skates, grab an ax,
backpack and my 20 gage shotgun, untie the dogs and off we would go to run the
trap line. It would take me a couple of
hours to check all the traps and pull the rats out and reset the traps. This was all done in the dark, with my dogs
Chief and Dan. I would remember where my
 |
| Danny |
brother and I set the traps and usually have to chop a hole in the ice and
reach your hand in the ice-cold water to pull the trap out and hopefully with a
rat in it out and then reset the trap. During the week I would run the trap
line in the morning and my brother Terry would skin the rats after school. We had a little shed with a potbelly stove in
it where we skinned and stretched the rats.
After bringing them back I would get ready for school, oatmeal for
breakfast, pack your lunch and catch the bus at 730. All this with out my Moms or Dads prompting. This was the only way we had to make money
and we were good at it… I was in
wrestling so I would go to practice after school and my brother Terry would
skin the rats and stretch the
 |
| Dad, Terry and me.. |
hides for dying.
After wresting practice I would hitchhike home about 7 miles. On the weekends Terry and I would head out to
the marsh to find new places to set our traps for the coming week. Each hide was worth about 3 dollars; so by
the time Christmas rolled around we would each have a couple of hundred
bucks.
For the majority of my
childhood I lived on the marsh and was always hunting and fishing. My bother and I would disappear for a couple
of days at a time, making bullfrog stew, roasting fish and raiding
gardens. We had numerous ways to make
money and were quite the entrepreneurs.
We would catch crabs (crayfish) to sell to fisherman, dew worms at night
with a flash light, run a trout line and sell or eat the fish, catch snapping
turtles and sell them, help my grandpa bail hay, sell garden vegetables, pick
wild strawberries and sell them. I guess
looking back we were poor but it never felt that way. We would take the money we
 |
| The shed we worked in...winter |
made and go to a
place we called, “The Little Store” and buy candy and soda pop. The pop was so special we would not pop the
top but punch small holes in it so it would come out slower.
It seemed normal at the time
and was a great way to grow up. I believe I had the childhood every boy dreams
of, hunting, fishing and trapping. I
suspect in some parts of the US this still goes on or at least I hope it does.
Why is any of this
important? The world is changing so fast
and with that change we move further towards commercialism, me included. It really does not take a lot to make me
happy and I am hoping that someday I can return to a similar life as I had while growing up. Identify as soon as you can what type of
place you would like to live in, farm/city and so on, keep this in mind and
keep moving towards it. Where you live
is almost as important as whom you live there with…let the adventure begin!
 |
| Thanksgiving 1967, Mom, Peggy, Mike, Grandpa Bunning, Terry, Tracy, Sharon....does look a little like Norman Rockwell's photo |
