Maine History Told by Mainers

Summer on the Farm

Submitted September 1, 2002 by Sylvia Trueworthy Pease

I was very fortunate to grow up on a small dairy farm located in Porter, Maine. In the summer months my three brothers and father spent long days haying the fields, milking cows and tending the gardens. My family sold vegtables door to door in town and also we supplied Camp Hiawatha, a neighboring girls' camp, with fresh corn. My older sister and I were responsible for taking care of the house and helping our mother with the cooking and the laundry. We only got recruited to assist with the haying when there was a thunderstorm on the horizon. We always had an abundance of homemade biscuits, cakes, cookies, donuts and pies that my mother produced in our old fashioned kitchen. She cooked using a Queen Atlantic wood stove which also heated the water in our tank. As you can imagine it got pretty warm in that kitchen in summer months.

Luckily Trafton Pond was located across the road from our farm. So when the chores were done we all loaded in to the back of our father's farm truck and traveled to the pond to take a dip and cool off. The pond also served as our personal bath tub for our weekly baths. I can remember a good many Sundays taking my bath in the pond before going to Sunday School.

We spent very little time inside during the months of July and August. There was no television until I was older so we built forts in the woods and at night we would catch lightning bugs as we played hide and seek in the dark. Games of badminton on the front lawn or a game of baseball in the back field kept us occupied in what little free time we had.

I look back on those years growing up on the farm with affection. My brothers and sister and I still reminisce about those years growing up on the Trueworthy farm.