by John Fuller

Some memories of John Fuller who lives at the end of the road in Clinton County.

My day begins early from my big window, I see birds and other wildlife start their day.

I look up from my coffee cup and see the calendar. Wow, it’s my birthday…90 today. I look up again. Here comes Kathy with the best looking cake I ever saw.

“I was not able to put 90 candles on it and you would not have enough wind to blow them out,” Kathy said with a big smile.

I thank her as I have for over 71 years.

We have a cup of coffee and talk. Our memories go back a long time ago.

We lived just down the road from each other. We had to work, no freebies, no food stamps, no school lunches.

Our parents were great teachers. Working with them we learned the do’s and don’t’s with farm animals, like you don’t get behind a skunk. Our dog did pay the price.

Like all kids we had our share of cuts, bruises, and sprains, but nothing serious. No one ever told us every day how much danger we were in.

Going to church and Sunday afternoon drives in the back seat of a Studebaker, no air bags, no seat belts, padded dash, no power this or that.

Back home, not much different. Loud steel wheel tractors, belts, pulleys, chain drives, all open. How lucky we were we never was hurt. The list could go on and on.

This was a time when Kathy lived at home with her family. She also has many stories growing up.

We all took great care of our land. We rotated crops and had many fields. We used no chemicals to control weeds, we used hoes.

When we got married June 18, 1949 we decided farming was not for us.

We got a job at Delco-Remi in Anderson, Indiana, and bought a place near Anderson, raised a boy and girl there.

My brother took over the farm when my father died. Kathy’s mother moved to town after she lost her father.

After many trips from Anderson to Clinton County and Dale Hollow Lake, when we retired, we moved here.

Every year we travel back down the back roads of our youth, where we grew up.

What we don’t see is sad. No family farms, no side ditches with rabbits and quail to hunt, no houses, no barns, no gardens, no back yards, no farm animals, no chickens, no dogs or cats, no woods where children played, filled with raspberries, blackberries and mushrooms to hunt…all gone now. All we see is corn rows.

We both have many family members gone, many left.

We attend reunions and visit. We all love one another and love to talk and this is just a small brief of my long life here.

I thank God every day. He has given me a wife and companion, Kathy, for over 71 years, and a time I lived in that was a more simple time and the memories that could go on forever.

John Fuller