Life Was Hard, But The Food Was Delicious (cont)

Eventually, after the rabbits had been moved to hutches or had been eaten, Allen made the rabbit hutch into a chemistry lab for Portia complete with old boards for lab workbenches. Portia had gotten her long dreamed of chemistry set for Christmas. She had thoroughly studied the Chemistry sets in the Sears catalog, which was most of the time in the outhouse being used instead of the toilet paper we never had. Portia had read a book about Marie Curie, the famous chemist who had discovered radium. Portia wanted to be like Marie Curie because she was proof that a girl could do something significant. On Christmas morning the chemistry set Portia wanted was not under the tree. Instead of her dream a very limited toy chemistry set was there because it had cost much less. She was so disappointed that she could not stop the tears. After a big fight between Allen and Virginia, they drove to Ada the next day and bought the chemistry set Portia had wanted. After a few weeks of weird smells and smoke coming from Portia’s and Veta’s bedroom, Allen converted the rabbit shed to a chemistry lab and made his daughter very happy.

That chemistry set, however, was not Portia’s best Christmas. The best was when she was ten years old and her father totally surprised her with Sand Boy, a beautiful palomino pony. Allen had traded something for him. He was a bit skittish because apparently he had been entangled in barbed wire as a colt. Even the sound of wire would make him go crazy. Portia and that pony became inseparable. She rode him bareback and could ride him without a bridle. She was the only one Boy liked to have on his back. Portia rode Boy to round up the cows for milking in the morning and at night. She also rode him to explore creeks and rivers and to ride with other kids in the area. Portia got in big trouble when one day she tied Boy to a porch post. Something spooked him, and he pulled the porch post off from the house. You can bet it was a razor strap day.

Virginia encouraged us in school. Her dream had been to finish high school. She even once enrolled in a correspondence course. She was very proud when we brought good grades home from school. She frequently fought with Allen in order to get us the things we needed for school and to take us to school activities. Allen was also proud when we did well in school, but he placed doing the farm work ahead of school work because he worried about feeding his family.