John

(1918 - )

John was always teasing! That’s the first thing that comes to mind when I think about John in our early years. He was always teasing me until I would get mad and try to hit him. But he was older and would just hold me off and laugh--which made me all the madder! I’d swing at him with both fists--but it didn’t do any damage and he’d just go on laughing and teasing.

John usually had a mischievous gleam in his eyes--and he did get into somewhat more mischief than the rest of us. He was always playing tricks and eager to try something new. Here’s an example from Mother’s diary: “John lassoed one of the colts in the east pasture and it got away and ran off with the rope around its neck. Dad and the boys had an awful time getting close enough to it to get the rope off.”

John was the quickest of the four boys. He picked up new things quickly, while his brothers tended to be rather more deliberate. (On the other hand, he was the least studious--but he was sharp enough to get pretty good grades without studying very hard.) He was also the most athletic and was good at all kinds of sports. As a kid sack racing was his specialty--no one could beat “Jumping Jack John.” And he was more outgoing and seemed to make new friends more easily than his more reserved brothers.

John liked guns. We did a lot of target practicing when we were kids. We’d set up tin cans on the posts of the fence beside the cob house and take turns knocking them down with a rifle. We seldom beat John at this. Once when he was twelve John took a quick shot at a pigeon, but only broke a wing. When he picked it up he found that it had a numbered band on one leg--a homing pigeon. He named it Homer, fixed a splint on the broken wing and made a little pen for it in the yard. He took good care of it and it soon became a tame pet. However, before its wing healed it disappeared except for a few feathers--apparently a raccoon ate Homer.

John was good at farm work, especially working in the fields. Since he was always “stretching” to do new things, he did a man’s work at an early age. Mother’s diary for 1931 tells of John running the tractor and disking when he was twelve. “Likes it fine and does real well.” Another entry tells that he was out in the field plowing by five AM. He was also allowed to drive the truck alone in the Prairie Home area when he was twelve. (That was before there were state age restrictions on driving.)

I like another quotation from Mother’s diary: “There just isn’t better help when John wants to do something he likes, but when he is not interested it is most powerful hard to get it done.”