Dear Group, This evening I couldn't resist reading over other simple stories that I wrote in school and this was one that I wrote when I was about 16 years old (ca 1946). It was that time in my life when I didn't know which I was crazier about--horses or boys! Summer Saturdays Most of my Saturdays in the summer were spent horseback riding on Grand Island. My three girlfriends Marilyn, Ann, Margaret and I met at the Grand Island bridge one Saturday (not any Saturday in particular, but just a day in the summer) and went over to "Way-Bak-Ranch" together. Way-Bak-Ranch is in reality just a farm with a stable of riding horses. Upon arriving, we called to Mr. Walters, who everyone calls Howard, to let him know that we were there. He greeted us with something like "Hiya kids! Glad to see you" and after settling the matter about who should take what horse, we started off on trail. Feeling that we would like something different to do, we decided to go exploring. After going through fields, woods and swamps for a considerable length of time, we started back. We raced the horses a bit then slowed down to a walk for the last ten minutes. When we got back, we unbridled and unsaddled the horses and brushed them good. It was about 12:00 by then so we took our lunches that we had packed, up into the hay loft and sat up there for an hour or so eating, talking and playing around in the hay. It was during this time of the summer that Howard harvested his oats, so the four of us shocked oats while Howard cut and bound the oats. By the time we were finished in the fields, it was about 3:30 so Howard let us have the horses for an hour to repay us for the help. We went out on trail for an hour and came back promptly at 4:30. We played around the barn for a while when we got back and at 5:00 we left. We arrived home around 6:00 and you can well imagine that we had enough exercise for THAT day. [Vee's note here: I have the feeling that 16-year-old kids now adays pay more than $.50 an hour to ride horses. But by the same token, that was less than the hourly wage that we girls were paid to shock oats out in the fields. My skin still itches from thinking about it! Did YOU ever shock oats?] Gee to be 16 again!! vee