Back in My Day

By Reagan ConnellyBob and Sarah Flaming met in high school when they both attended the high school for the Mennonite Brethren Church in Oklahoma.Bob, who grew up in southern Texas, had to board at the school when his parents sent him there to get an education. Bob attended high school for three years.Sarah Flaming grew up in southern Oklahoma in a large family of wheat farmers. “We were numbered nine. There were nine children,” she said. “Eight girls and one boy.”Sarah said the one boy was the second youngest child. “But you know in those days girls could do some farm work. It was mostly in the yard,” she said. “We had chickens and we had cows and we had pigs and we had all these things. And we did the chores.”Sarah added that by the time she was born, her family operated like a well-oiled machine, “My parents assigned us with a chore and we just did it. And we enjoyed doing it. I’m not thinking that we ever complained that we had to do our share of it,” she said.Growing up on a wheat farm, Sarah experienced an instability that comes with all farming. Everything depended on the success of the crop. “If you had a good wheat crop in the fields one year, then everything would be fine and they’d be able to pay off whatever debts they had,” she said. “But then there were times when it was not so easy to get the money on the table so-to-speak and so they had to have a lot of means besides the farming and besides the wheat.”Sarah said this last part is what made her parents successful in their farming. “We had a bunch of cows to milk and they had a separator to take the cream from the milk and sell the cream,” she said. She added that her family kept the milk. But dairy products were not the only item her farm produced.“We had eggs and we made a lot of things with eggs and milk,” she said. “And flour from the wheat fields.”Bob Flaming grew up in the Mennonite Brethren Church, noting “But it’s not the style of church that you go to but who you worship that matters,” he said. He expressed a deep belief that a person must accept Jesus as his savior to be allowed into heaven.Bob was born and raised on a vegetable farm. “We had cows and pigs and chickens and all that too,” he said.Farming in those days was a much smaller operation than it is now, Bob said. He added that without the technology and big machines farmers today have, they were not able to plant or harvest nearly as many crops as what is the norm today.Bob remembers taking their produce to the farmer’s market each week.

Suspect in McDonald’s Robbery Objects to Providing DNA Sample

Educator to Discuss Wind and Solar Energy in Blue Springs

Related Articles

Governor Vetoes Child Abuse Tort Claim Bill

A Remembrance of Thomas Jefferson

Cattle Must Be Tested for Bird Flu Before Interstate Transport

Lawnmower Fire