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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 41/125

After milking Old Kitty every morning, I got on Old1 Beck, our lazy mule, and drove
Old Kitty to the pasture to spend the day until it was time to milk her again that afternoon.
She was always ready to go to the pasture and could have gone by herself except there was a

gap in the rail fence. I had to open it for her to get into the pasture.
Just inside this gap were two huge persimmon trees. I loved to climb one or the other
to the top every afternoon, then I could see Old Kitty in the fields or in the pasture; she had

access to either place. When I called her from the top of the tree, she would come running.
Old Beck would roam around eating grass; she liked the pasture, too. As soon as Old Kitty
was coming, I’d climb down from the tree.
On one afternoon, as I looked down to see where to place my foot on a limb', the

ground began to rise up to me. My head was just spinning around and around. I hugged that
tree so tight to keep from falling. Old Kitty had reached the gap which I had opened and she
was on her way down the dirt lane to the stables.

I began feeling better and slowly took one step at a time and finally made it to the
ground. I led Old Beck by the reins to the bridle across the gap and put the rails back up.
This closed the gap, then I led Old Beck up close->to the fence where I could climb up on the

fence and reach her back to get on. We caught up with Old Kitty just in time to open the lot
gate for her to enter. Her milk bag and long tits were so full of milk that they were almost
dragging the ground.

At one time, we had about fourteen guineas. They squalled and squawked all day and
all night. They would hide their nests so we could never find them. Finally I thought that if

we opened the crib door, the guineas would flock into, the crib to steal com. I opened the
crib door early in the mornings, and when the guineas flew up into the crib, I quickly shut the
door quick and left thenl in the crib until they laid their eggs. I then turned them out and

went into the crib to pick up their eggs. Pa finally got rid of them.
At one time, we also had a flock of geese. I helped Ma hold them so she could pick
the down to make pillows. One Sunday while we were at church, someone stole the geese

and all of the potted flower plants Ma had placed on the front porch.

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