Thoughts Of Yesterday" Written in 1977, by George Payzant Waste To all those who are interested, may I take you back a few years to when I was a child. My father was a very enterprising man; besides all the farm work, he drove a milk and cream route in Mondovi, Wisconsin, which was two miles away. From 1904 and for the next nine years he made a remarkable record of never missing a day of delivery! Even when a flood washed out the bridge, he figured out a way to make delivery. The milk was taken across the fast flowing water by boat and put on another rig on the opposite shore. He prided himself on delivering milk ice cold to his customers even in the heat of summer. The milk which was brought from the barn was cooled in cans in ice water, bottled cold and then put on ice in the milk wagon which kept it cold till it was delivered to the door. All for four cents a quart! By 1913 the prices had inflated to six cents a quart. Don't we wish we could buy it for those prices now! Getting the ice for keeping the milk cold, was quite a chore in itself. In the winter when the ice on Mirror Lake in Mondovi was twelve or more inches thick was the time we had for filling the ice house; a building about 18'x30' by 12' high. Ice was carefully packed in sawdust which would prevent it from melting even through the summer heat. Often our neighbors, returning from town with their sleighs would bring ice blocks to fill our personal ice house. Then in the summer they would come and get ice to make delicious home-made ice cream. In high school I set two records: one in never missing a day; and two, in being tardy almost every day. Each morning after milking and chores I rode with Dad to school in the milk rig. A student would be suspended from school now-days for being late so much. The teachers then were just glad when farm boys made it to school at all. The milk delivery business came to an abrupt halt when we had a runaway with the team and rig. My feeling still is that a run-away with a team of horses is safer than a run-away with a car. I remember the days when the phone would ring and my wife would call to me, "there's a run-away team coming your way." I ran for the road as the team sped towards me. As the team neared me I held the ladder Horizonally, ran towards them and yelled. Trembling with fear the horses stopped in their tracks and were easily caught. Another time brush was used in a similar manner. The owner was always grateful when he showed up later to claim his run-away team. Drivers often stopped their teams at our farm where the large wooden water trough was handy and the cool water inviting. Hot horses could not be watered at the end of their journey or they might founder, an illness which adversely affected the usefulness of the horses for life. But the team could be watered along the way without danger to them which saved the farmer time when he got home. I can still remember in 1914 my Dad stopped a driver and team going past with a load of flour. As the sky was very dark and ominous he had the driver quickly unload the flour and Dad hurriedly put the team in the barn. The tornado struck, uprooting a row of trees where the man would have passed. The man was very appreciative for the shelter during the storm. Another story I like to tell is about the fire whistle blowing in town. If Dad and I were in town when the fire whistle pierced the air we would make a mad dash for the fire station. The first one to get hitched up to the hose wagon at the station would receive the enormous sum of five dollars. That was always an exciting time to see teams coming from all directions in town just as fast as possible. Horse days were hard days. During horse days we depended on exchange work with our neighbors to get our work done. They gathered with their teams to feed the crops into the stationary harvesting machines; the threshing machines, the silo fillers and the corn shredders. In 1935 I purchased a John Deere D tractor to replace the steam engine. It was a big improvement for no longer did we need to busy one or two teams to haul water for the steam engine, nor did we need a large stack of wood to power the steam engine. We all looked forward to meal time when we were away from home, as it seemed the farmer's wives were trying to outdo each other when it came to baking and cooking. We also looked forward to the companionship of working with others. Neighbors really helped neighbors in those days. I look back on those days with fond memories. Besides replacing the steam engine in the harvesting bees, the John Deere D did the field work on my own farm. A new generation of harvesting machines; the combine, the forage chopper and self-unloading wagons and the corn picker ushered in a new era in farm work and ended the exchange labor. My John Deere D still labors each summer blowing chopped hay into the barn. Last summer in addition to its regular chores it had the distinct honor of pullin the prize winning 4-H float in the Mondovi Bicentennial Parade. George Payzant Waste passed away on 13 Dec 1991 in Eau Claire Phil Waste