by Sally Six
They had lost half their geese, but only a quarter of the chickens. The horses, bull and two cows were in the back pasture and hadn’t been seen. Paul let out his breath. He hadn’t realized he had been holding his breath when he spotted the horses and cattle. Nancy headed for the root cellar with winter coming, she was hoping the food she had canned from her garden had not been harmed. Paul had put the root cellar back in the tree line and so it wasn’t that easy to see it was there. Tom and Barb went with Nancy and Tom helped to open the root cellar door and down they all went. She slowly opened the inner door and let the light filter in. Wonderful, everything was fine. Whole pumpkins and squash inside bins and rows and rows of canned meats, fruits and vegetables lined the shelves. Nancy felt such a relief that she could hardly stand.
Paul found the grain bins were also in good shape and the sheds hadn’t been touched. Everyone was amazed so little had been taken. This was just a wild strange attack and that worried the Grahams’ and Carters’. Were they next? The house was gone but the old furniture, household odds and ends and clothes that had been stored in the basement were unharmed. Paul’s father had built this place to last. The cement board he had placed under the main floorboards had saved the basement. They wouldn’t have the newest or best of their things, but at least they would have something to furnish a cabin with.
Someday they thought they might be able to move back and with help. Build a small home and a barn, but they wouldn’t feel safe here right now with just being the two of them. At the Grahams, they had company and children to see and play with. Paul and Nancy had someone to pass their skills onto. Months later they were content with their lives and no longer thought of being intruders in this family.
Ann and Michael looked over the family as they ate their Sunday morning breakfast together and listened to all the voices. Some old and easily recognized some new but all welcome. The family had been large. Then it was just the two of them for a few years. Now back to large again. They missed the voices that they would never hear again but life was full and very busy. Times like these made you feel that they and the children after them had a future. Life was different now and some things were harder. They had be more careful of sickness and injury and taken better care of themselves, but the good wholesome foods and work seemed to be a benefit.
A traveling tinker and a doctor had stopped by on rounds last month and would be back every other month from now on. Candy and treats were made at Holiday time again. It was not an everyday occurrence so they were considered a real treat. The only people that were heavy were the ones where it was a normal thing for them to be through heritage.
In thirty years a few towns again across the U.S. had electricity. Some of the old appliances were worked on again and put back in service with some being made for those that could afford it. But they wouldn’t be in the general populace for another twenty-five years.
Never again did the planet make it to the point it had been when the bombs dropped. Families were again generational and cared for one another. Children were disciplined and polite. Crime was punished accordingly and swiftly. Some lessons are learned the hard way and amazedly some do learn from history, but as usual in this new world there is always trouble just a heartbeat away.
The End
Or is it?
Author’s Biography
Born a month premature at a small town Doctor's home in northern Wisconsin, Sally and her two brothers were reared by parents who were children of the Great Depression. Her father was a lumberjack (recall the old song about "selling your soul to the company store"?) while her mother took jobs as a waitress to help subsidize their income. The family moved from place to place to follow her father's employment, living in many places without modern conveniences. To help feed the family of course her father helped put food on the table with his hunting and fishing skills. She spent many a beloved day on her grandparent’s small dairy farm and learned to love the great outdoors from a very early age often following her dog along the bear paths.
Sally has been a storyteller for years. She met and married her husband in Colorado in the 70's. They built a family of 10 children who have all moved on and started building their own lives. Their family lived throughout various parts of the USA including Iowa, Virginia, Missouri, Idaho and Washington.
Through the years, Sally's talents grew as she learned the various arts of farm living and colonial crafts. These include sewing, quilting, knitting, crocheting, embroidering, tanning deer & elk hides, leather work, canning, dehydrating, cheese making, candle & soap making, beading and jewelry making, Indian crafts like Mandela’s & dream catchers, raising farm animals, butchering various wild and domestic animals, hunting, fishing, primitive camping, gardening and manufacturing items from raw wool prepared & spun at home. Along with doing lots of family history for many family members and other.