Page 148 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

UNCLE WALTER LEARNS TO FLY

Many of my readers will know what fodder is, but for those who may not be sure what fodder consists
of I will tell you. Corn is a plant that creates a lot of sugar and nutrients, similar to sugar cane, but does
not produce as much sugar. However, the leaves of the corn plant are rich in nutrients, including sugar,
and that is what fodder consists of.

Out in the corn fields, after the ears of corn are mature, but before the corn has started wilting back in
preparation for the fall of the year, and before the corn is picked, in the old days the famers would go out
in to the corn fields and strip all of the leaves off of the corn, while the leaves were still green, and hang
them across the corn stocks that were still attached to the stalk and leave them 2 or 3 days in the hot sun
to dry. If you put them up too soon, there would still be moisture in them, and they would get moldy and
be unsuitable for livestock to eat.

After the leaves off the corn stocks were sufficiently dry, they would be gathered into bundles, which
were bulky, but light and fluffy. They would then be tied into bundles, using 2 or 3 of the same leaves
off the com stalk to tie the bundles together by wrapping it around it and knotting it. Then the bundles of
fodder would be loaded on a wagon and taken to the barn to be stored as winter feed for the horses and
mules. Cows would eat fodder too, but farmers gathered the fodder and saved it mostly to feed the
horses and mules.

A term grew in to general usage when 1 was a boy called “fodder-pulling showers”. Due to the time of
year that fodder was being produced by stripping the leaves from the stalks, it was a time of year that
frequently you would have small short rain showers in the afternoons, and these were known as fodder­
pulling showers. It was not something to be desired, since that only lengthened the number of days that
it would take the fodder to dry out sufficiently to put in to storage. The thing about the fodder, being so
light and fluffy and resembling the wing feathers of large birds, that it has been told to me way back
th
years ago, by my daddy and by 1 or 2 of his brothers, that my uncle Walter,(who was the 4 child of my
grandpa Henry Dicks and my grandmother Dicks, Alice,) and uncle Walter got the idea that if he could
tie a couple of bundles of fodder to each arm and jump out of the hay loft in the bam that this was going
to enable him to fly.

All he actually did was to provide a story for the rest of the boys to tell, and it gave the whole
neighborhood a big laugh. His flight was very short, and apparently lasted no longer than it would have
lasted if he had left the fodder alone.

I was riding by the ole Grandpa Dicks* Homestead a few days ago, and 1 noticed that the opening to the
hay loft in the old bam has a couple of pieces of tin nailed over it, and since that belongs to Hubert
Markham’s widow, Shirley Dicks Markham, I was not able to find out why the tin is over the window to
the hay loft. Surely it was not to keep some other enterprising young Dicks or Markham from trying the
same stunt that Uncle Walter tried.

The story went around and was handed down from one generation to another, and I cannot really say
with certainty that it happened just as I have stated here. Anyway it makes a good story and since Uncle
Walter and Aunt Clara have passed on, together with all of their children, I don’t suppose there is
anybody left that would take offense at this.

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