Frank was named after his grandfather, his dad's father.
Frank was always a good storyteller, I think he got that from his dad Fred.
He didn't have to stretch the facts too far just a good sense of adventure and a knack for stringing a story together.
We had a lot of fun as kids growing up on the farm. Climbing trees, raising a few Critters, building forts, riding bikes, sledding on the hills in Winter and building snow forts. Playing in the barn during thunderstorms is still one of my favorite memories. Thunder rumbling, and lightning cracking with the rain just pouring off the roof. So warm and dry in The Hayloft. Don't fall through the hay chute!... Too late!... I think all of us kids got the wind knocked out of us a time or two in that old barn. Can you really expect us boys ( and girls ) to not play in the water when it's so cool pouring off the roof!
It was pretty busy around the farm in those days with 9 kids around and running The Sawmill business 24 hours a day. There was no shortage of slabs and pallets that we could sneak off to build forts with. Grandma Humbarger came up one summer when Frank was 8 or 9 years old to help out just keeping an eye on us kids. I'm sure it was more than a full-time job! After breakfast she would kick us out of the house to go play and explore. One day Frank came back for lunch all tired and sweaty. Grandma asked what have you been doing? Chopping wood, Frank says. After lunch Frank hurried off to continue his work. Frank came in that afternoon satisfied that he done a good day's work. A few days later dad came in and was pretty steamed! Who chopped up that poly pipe?!!!... The the plan was to pump water from a spring down in the woods. Luckily it was an abandoned project. 1000 foot of 2 inch poly pipe chopped up into 2 foot pieces. He sure did a good days work!
I will miss stopping by and catching up on stories from Frank's life in Texas and the opportunity to share more of my adventures with him.
Brother Brian.
