The city of Portland, OR was where my brother and I grew up. Our house was the third house from the county line. The county line was actually a line, that’s right, a line, right down the middle of the street, and it was a very straight road. For some of us with fast cars it couldn’t get any better than that. One side of this line was city and the other side the county.
Like the hot rod guys before us, my friends and I were always working on our cars too. When one of us finished working on a car we would want to see if it went any faster, so, with tires smoking, headers un-corked, which now could be heard for miles around, and the sound of that V8; it was just like the Fourth of July. For our neighbors however, it was like dragging your fingernails down a chalkboard. They could only stand so much of our noise. You could make two runs, and if you were a tough guy you might try three, before you became a wanted man; and you knew the cops were coming.
We did the math! If you got stopped that was it, you would be walking, or back on your bike or maybe your skateboard. We knew if you saw a city cop you turned onto the county side of the road and if you saw a county cop you turned onto the city side, then disappear fast! Neither city or county police would crossover that center line. This went on for some time and it became more of a game than just going fast. It was us vs. them.
Our neighbors never liked this game and we knew it was just a matter of time before they finished us! It was so simple too; once they thought of it. Now the neighbors had a plan. Up until now, either the city cops or the county cops would be called, now they would call both the city and county police and they would both come out together. There was literally nowhere to turn!
That was that! The end! We were history! As are other things of that time. I could fill my 57 chev for around $5.00, buy a pack of cigs from a vending machine for $.55, and take my date to a drive-in movie.

Back in the day...

Grandpa Tom

Most people think the first time I was ever on a farm was when I drove my 57 chev down to Springfield Oregon to meet Kaye’s parents. Three hundred acres on the Mackenzie river; it was very cool! But actually, I was on a farm years before I met Grandma Kaye. This farm, us kids fondly named, Terry and Larry’s Rat Farm! You see back in the day, one of the kids that I ran around with was a boy named Danny; two times a year he and his parents would travel over to Eastern Oregon to help on the family farm. This particular time Danny asked me if I would like to go. Before I could say yes, Danny told me that it was not going to be only fun and games but that we would be doing farm chores, I said let’s go!
It was very early when we arrived, Terry and Larry were home alone. You see, Terry and Larry’s parents had a fleet of combines and they made a living doing the cutting from farm to farm, so their day starts before the sun comes up, plus at that time they had 25 head of cattle.

Terry said, “This time of year, we may only see our parents at breakfast and dinner and only if we are up by 4:00am and up very late.”
When we went into the farm house Danny’s dad picked up a list of chores from off the kitchen table and Danny’s mom started on the dishes. The chore Danny’s dad gave us were both the same chore and that chore was to move sacks of feed from off the barn floor to the loft above. Danny and I raced to the barn. In the dimly lit barn the floor started moving, mice and rats started running around in every direction, two or three even tried to run up my pant leg. It was gross! Then Danny and I started yelling and running all around just like the mice! Suddenly Terry and Larry came busting through the barn door to see what all the commotion was. Larry grabbed a base ball bat that was by the door and started hitting and smashing the rats, as for Terry, he started stomping on the mice and anything else that moved. It was really something to see! After things calmed down a bit, Danny asked Terry, “Why are there so many mice and rats in the barn?” Terry said the reason was because the dog and cats, that kept them out, have been chased out of the barn by a giant rat! Then Larry said the rat is as big as a giant possum, and at night you can even hear it and sometimes see its glowing eyes in the dark! Terry’s Dad said we need to shoot it. So Larry said, “Lets get the gun.”
On and off it took Danny and I almost 8 hours to move all the sacks of feed to the loft. Terry and Larry had finished their chores sometime earlier and were shooting mice and rats on the other side of the barn. Everytime a mouse or rat poked it’s head out ……….BANG……… Then they would say, "There go’s another!" and then someone would yell out, “What’s the count?”
“9... now!”
Around 6:00pm I was getting hungry. At home we would have had dinner by now, but here, dinner wasn’t finished being cooked. Just before 9:00pm Terry and Larry’s parents came home with 5 or 6 other combine drivers; we all sat down to this huge dinner, it was like a Thanksgiving feast. After dinner we all went to bed. Around 3:30am I could hear someone in the kitchen and smelled bacon being cooked, by 4:00am we were all back up and eating breakfast, and by 4:30 every one had gone back to work. For me, I just wanted to go back to bed! But Larry said that he needed help with the cows, so off to the barn we went. We fed the cows hay and some of the feed that we moved to the loft the day earlier. After the cows we all started on mowing the lawn and weeding the flower beds. By noon we were all finished with the chores. So, back to the barn for some more mice and rats. By evening we had a nice little pile of them there varmints.
By med week I had my chore thing down to a science and was even getting accustomed to the different hours. The days were getting warmer, but Thursday, was just plain hot! Larry said that we would be sleeping out in the field if we weren’t afraid? That sounded like a challenge. I had only slept outside in my back yard before this, I hoped I wouldn’t chicken out! After all, there’s nothing to be really afraid of out in a big field……… is there? ……Only darkness, …….only weird sounds, … only giant rats that chase dogs and cats! …. and only 25 big cows…….. Have you ever heard the word stampede? I’m glad I didn’t either.
After dinner we got our flash lights so we wouldn’t step in the cow pies, laid plastic down on the ground and of course over the cow pies, then our seeping bags. It was very dark out there, but man could you see the stars. I liked seeing the shooting stars the most! By 4:00am we were back up eating and starting on our chores again.
The week went very fast, and now it was Saturday and time to go back to the big city. I made some great friends, gained 20 pounds and had a great time. At the end of the count I think we killed 47 mice and 18 rats, but that giant rat, no where to be seen. When we got back we had some great stories about Terry and Larry’s Rat Farm.
Oh ya……….. Terry called and said that they shot that giant rat! Larry’s Dad said that it must have came from the sewers of New York …….you know…… with the giant alligators.

Grandpa Tom