At this time of year people will be looking to have a treat and go for a hayride. Fine horses will pull the sled or wagon. Horses will have fancy harness with colored rings and bells. Off people go and there's no hay on the ride! I once saw a rig with hay bales and another rig with wooden benches.
It reminds me of the many hayrides I had as a child. Very few people will have experienced this or remember it. I think Maybe JB from Cottage Country Reflections might remember these days.
I was born in 1939. My Dad bought his little farm in 1935 in the middle of the depression. He had very little money to buy animals or equipment. However, at that time many farmers had gone broke and were leaving. They would have an auction sale and move. Now people going to the auction sales didn't have much money so many things didn't sell and were left. This is where my Dad got his stuff...on auction sales. This stuff was very old and in poor repair. He bought horses that were poor and old.
Farming at that time was labor intensive. Before the depression farmers always had hired men. Dad had to work by himself.
So getting and storing food for his animals went on for a long time. Grass was cut with a horse drawn mower that had a 5 foot blade. It took a long time to cut much grass. Then the hay was raked in rows. It could be put in small stacks at that time or hauled home.
The hay mower.
The hay rake
So here come the hay rides. When I was big enough I arranged the hay on the rack while he loaded the hay. Then ride home to the yard to unload the hay. It was fun to lie in the hay. My brother and I probably threw hay at each other. On top of the hay was a good place to practice our wrestling technique. Somehow we never fell off the load of hay.
In the cold of winter the hay ride was different. It was on a sleigh and sometimes very cold. We would run through the hay and bury ourselves in the hay. If it was cold we didn't notice it.
It was a lot of hard work for Dad and some fun for us kids but it was a realistic hay ride.
I love your photos Red. Believe it or not, I've only had a hay ride once in my life. It was during a family Christmas at a lodge in the interior. It was wonderful and a beautiful, snowy lit night. Of course we were covered and well dressed so it wasn't cold like it might have been for you and your brother. Have a great and safe week ahead.
ReplyDeleteI snagged the photos off the internet. Like most old people I have very few photos of when I was young.
DeleteYou are right. You remind me that my mom had a photo of her dad and others standing in front of a gigantic pile of hay. I need to keep my eye out for it when I finally go through all the old photos.
DeleteI love these stories of your many memories of growing up! I imagine hay rides today are a lot different than they were when you were a kid. Your Dad was a hard worker and I know your Mom was too. They raised a fine family despite the hard times!
ReplyDeleteMany things have changed in the last 75 years. I lived in a different place and age.
DeleteI don't remember hay rides because I was brought up in a city but I do remember the horse drawn wagons and hay rakes from my visits to the countryside as a small boy. Harder times but simpler times.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very different technology.
DeleteA good reminder that it wasn't always fun for everyone.
ReplyDeleteAs kids we could find fun anywhere.
DeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI have been on some hayrides when my son was young. We even went on a haunted hayride for Halloween. They are fun. Great memories. Take care, enjoy your day! Wishing you a happy new week!
Many enjoyable events ar shared with our children.
DeleteI also have never been on a hayride, but I remember when they were a "thing" and everyone enjoyed finding a place to go on one. Your posts about your childhood are always very interesting!
ReplyDeleteWE lived in an area that was very different. I remember seeing some Christmas movies with hay rides.
DeleteWe had hayrides is our part of the world too (Texas), often filled with church youth groups. They were also a place where courting couples could wrestle with each other. No little brothers were allowed.
ReplyDeleteYes it was a popular activity for youth groups.
DeleteI remember going on a hayride when my boys were in Cub Scouts. It was cool weather and we stopped somewhere along the route for hot chocolate. Sweet - not at all like the hard work your Dad had to do! Now I think most farms have fancy high-tech machinery to do that work. Right, Red?
ReplyDeleteYes, high tech and expensive. Some of the newer equipment started to show up before I left the farm in 1957.
DeleteThose are some neat photos Red. And another interesting look back on your life. That last photo reminded me of a few of my vintage postcards from the first half of the last century. One of them shows 16 horses pulling a big load of hay. Did you ever see those kind of rigs? I think farmers also used them to plow the fields.
ReplyDeleteI snagged the photos off the internet. There are very few photos of this old guys youth. We only had equipment that took four horses.
DeleteCool images! I've never been on a hayride.
ReplyDeleteThe images I stole off the internet. Too much of what I was writing about would not make sense if there were no photos.
DeleteI loved reading this. Such a wonderful memory. I've never been on a real hayride. Your description of it and the rolling around fun you had with your brother is great. Love the photos.
ReplyDeleteThe photos are from the internet. Rural life at that time was very different. It was a different technology at that time.
DeleteWhat a wonderful story to share. I never been on a hayride so I guess I missed out on an unique experience. Thanks for the telling of a nice memory of yours. Have a great new week.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the world probably has other interesting activities to enjoy.
DeleteMy grandfather cut hay with a scythe. The horse hauled the hay home and I sometime rode on top. Good memories.
ReplyDeleteNow scything was another completely different way of cutting hay. I used a scythe when I worked on the railroad for one summer.
DeleteFun memories...I didn't like hay it was so itchy, if you were lucky to have meadow hay it was soft ours was not! :)
ReplyDeleteIf you were putting hay down your brother's neck, the itchier the better.
DeleteI always loved the stories my father-in-law told of his days growing up on their homestead in North Dakota. I enjoyed these Red, thank you :)
ReplyDeleteWE lived in the province of Saskatchewan just north of North Dakota.
DeleteWe had a hay ride last October!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mention. JB talks a lot about the rides in the buggy into town with his grandfather!
It was a very different life with the horses.
DeleteI can't imagine a hay ride with no hay! That's not a hay ride!
ReplyDeleteI haven't been on a hay ride since I was a child. In Florida (where I grew up) it's often too warm and buggy to ride around in a bunch of hay!
Your father must have been a very strong and resilient man. His family depended upon his labour. It would not have been cool for him to become ill and get holed up in bed for a few days. Not cool at all.
ReplyDeleteMy own grandfather worked in a furniture factory and came home and worked his farm. It WAS labor intensive, yet he did it all his life. Looking back on it, I cannot help but marvel over the fact that he kept all those balls in the air, and coped with a drinking problem on the side. He set aside his drinking in his 40s.
ReplyDeleteKids would enjoy that.
ReplyDeleteYour hay rides sounded like the only bit of rest in a hard day's work. I remember my older brother working summers for the farmer next door, pitching loose hay up into the wagon with a pitchfork, and riding on top of the load back to the barn. Hard work, and he was always sunburned for the first week or two.
ReplyDeleteHayrides are still popular in northern Minnesota. My daughter’s family went on one last winter. Pulled by a tractor, though — no horses. I loved them when I was growing up, except for the silly boys who stuffed hay down our backs.
ReplyDeleteI kind of remember being on some form of a “hay-ride.” I think I was told that was what it was supposed to be, but I don’t remember there being hay. We all sat together being pulled around the farm. But it was fun.
ReplyDeleteYour poor dad. It all sounds so back breaking. I hope he had enjoyment in his farm life too.
i absolutely Loved the word "realistic hay ride" this is what i miss so much now days believe me though i am not against advancement
ReplyDeletei have memories about hay ride as well ,when i rode on the flat hay stake tied behind the bull ,most exciting thing for little girl who came into village it was amazing :)