One year comes to an end and another year opens up with all new adventures and opportunities for us. The past and the future are divided by the present as the ball is dropped in Times Square each year. Sometimes the past and present converge into a magical moment in time. That happened for Linda and me this week when we were invited to go on a bobsled ride.
I’m old enough to remember when we had draft horses on the farm, but I don’t remember if we had a sleigh or bobsled. My cousin, Sandy, and I got to ride on the horses while Dad worked the fields or they pulled a wagon loaded with hay. We hung on for dear life to the collar and brass balls on the hames. It was a long way to the ground for little kids sitting on the back of Belgian draft horses. I was too young to harness them up or do any work in the fields with them, although I do remember helping my grandmother handle the reins as one of the horses pulled the rope that brought the hay up into the barn, after Dad had set the hayfork. I was too young to be trusted with handling the horses alone. This was all before he bought his first tractor, a John Deere B.
Those memories of draft horses are all in the past. My experiences of working in the fields are of using tractors, not working with horses. My experience of being around horses was limited to my early years, but I’m still fascinated with watching them work. Linda and I both enjoy driving around Amish Country and seeing them working in the fields using horses. For me it’s a trip back to my childhood years.
The Amish Country around Bloomingdale, Knapp Valley Road, and Wang Ridge Road are my Wang and Hanson roots on my mother’s side. It was back to this area where my great grandparents, grandparents, and my mother lived, that we headed one evening for our bobsled ride.
It all started one day at our office when a young Amish man, Jacob Schrock, recognized me and said that he reads my column in the Westby Times each week. He loves reading my stories about how life was lived, and how farming was done in this area years ago. He realized from reading my stories that we have a lot in common. We had a wonderful conversation. I showed him a drawing I have hanging on my office wall. It’s a drawing I did of old buildings in a winter setting on the farm where my mother grew up on Wang Ridge Road. An Amish family now lives on the farm. Jacob lives at the lower end of Wang Ridge Road, but knows where the old Hanson farm is located near the upper end of the road.
A week after we met, Jacob called one day and was wondering if Linda and I would like to go on an evening bobsled ride. The moon was almost full and the weather was supposed to be nice for a couple days and it would be a great time to go for a ride. Of course, I said we would love to go.
Two days later we had two inches of fresh snow. The next evening, Linda and I headed for Lower Wang Ridge Road. It was a beautiful, full moon night, with a star-filled sky. We met Jacob at his farm in the valley and went to the barn with him where he harnessed the two, large draft horses that would pull the bobsled. He had hung the lantern he carried on a hook attached to a ceiling beam. It reminded me of the one light bulb we had hanging in our barn when I was young, except we had electricity instead of a lantern. He grabbed the lantern and we followed the horses out of the barn to the bobsled, where he hitched them to the sled. Then Linda and I climbed in and sat down, covering ourselves with a heavy blanket. Jacob stood in the front of the bobsled and guided the horses as we headed out across a snow-covered field.
Linda and Howard in the bobsled on a moonlit night.
We crossed Highway P and headed up a narrow road that took us over the creek, up the hill, and through the woods. The moon and stars shining through the bare trees and reflecting on the snow, along with the jangle of the harness, and the sound of the sled on the snow, created a magical moment. It was cold, but we were protected from the wind as we went up the trail, with gullies on one side. When we reached the ridge near Pa’s Road, Jacob got off to open the gate and I drove the team through the gate. They even stopped when I said, “Whoa!” It was more windy and cold on the ridge, but the view was wonderful. We traveled along Eagle’s View Lane and then on narrow trails that took us back down into the valley.
We had a wonderful conversation with Jacob during the hour ride. It really was a magical night as we experienced what my ancestors had before me in these same hills and valleys. Linda patted and thanked the horses before we left. For one hour, the past and the present had come together to create a magical moment we will always remember.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment