The Country Editor South 5.1.13

Page 1

The

May 1, 2013

Countryy Editor

Volume 1 Number 3

South

Just good reading

Illinois woman quilts for scholarships ~ Page 2

A Walk

Fish Tales ~ Page 3

Settling the dust

A dust storm rolling across the Littlefield Farm in Swisher County, Texas in 1935. Photo taken at intersection of FM 1075 and 2301.

in the Woods ~ Page 15

by Dee Ann Littlefield, USDA-NRCS “You couldn’t see. You couldn’t breathe. You couldn’t go outside for days,” remembers Eugene Littlefield. “It was awful.” Littlefield is referring to the giant black clouds of soil that would blot out the sun and swallow the countryside. Born in Wayside, TX in 1934, Littlefield was welcomed into the world by the Dust Bowl — an era in the 1930s when the most massive, brutal dust storms ever known to our nation repeatedly ravaged the Panhandle and Great Plains regions. Littlefield was the only child of parents that raised cattle, wheat and sorghum on their farm 20 miles east of Happy, in the now-extinct community of Wayside. “We could see those storms coming over the horizon,” he said. “The dirt would blow in your face and hit your skin so hard it hurt. Dad would get our animals in the best shelter he could, while my mom started packing the windows with rolled wet towels and hung sheets to try to keep dirt out. “It still didn’t work,” he said, shaking his head at the fury and intensity of the storms. “Fine sand would get in our food no matter how well we protected it. It would get behind the wallpaper in our house. Our white sheets on the bed would turn brown. “Mother would light kerosene lamps and you could barely see them for the brown haze around them,” he adds. See Settling page 3

*****************ECRWSSEDDM**** PRESORTED FIRST CLASS MAIL Local POSTAGE PAID US Postal Customer UTICA, NY PERMIT NO 55

PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. POSTAGE PAID EDDM RETAIL

A ruff reunion by Kelly Gates Ten years ago, a Nashua, NH, man named Jamie Carpentier parted ways with his beloved basset hound Ginger when he and his wife divorced and she chose to take the dog with her. Carpentier was saddened by the loss, but he eventually got another pet, a white boxer, who he loved and tended to for many years. Then, on Christmas Eve 2012, an ongoing illness overtook the poor pup and the owner was forced to make the decision many dread — having the animal put to sleep to end its suffering. “When I had to make that decision, I thought I would never get a dog again,” Carpentier said. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to lose your best friend and I had lost two of them in just a matter of years. So I wasn’t about to open myself up to another dog that I knew wouldn’t be here forever.” Despite his efforts to guard his heart from yet another loss, Carpentier found himself missing having a pooch pal around to pet and play with. And when he fell and injured his back during an ice fishing excursion several weeks later, his desire to

adopt another dog intensified even more. “I was lying around recovering and happened to log on to our local Humane Society’s website; just to look,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on getting a dog yet, but when I saw an article about a basset hound named ‘Ginger’ who was up for adoption, I couldn’t believe it. The dog was around 13 years old and the colors and markings mentioned in the article sounded just like the basset hound I had owned many years before.” There was no photo with the article, so Carpentier called the Nashua Humane Society and asked for images. The staff responded with a host of pictures, each one showing the unique markings that matched the photographs Carpentier had of Ginger as a puppy. Amazingly, they were a match. More than a decade after they were separated, Ginger and her master were about to be reunited. “My father drove me to the Humane Society and as soon as Ginger heard my voice, she got up, trotted over, sniffed me and then licked me on the cheek,” said Carpentier. “She remembered me after all

Jamie Carpenter and his dog Ginger were reunited after 10 years. those years. And, she remembered my dad too.” Shortly after the Nashua native and his basset buddy came together, Carpentier See Reunion page 2


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.