Carlin Farm

Growing up in the country on a dairy farm was very limiting as far as socialization was concerned. We hardly ever went to visit anyone our age. I can remember that I was 21 years old before I ever spent the night at a friend’s house. We did have a few neighbors that were our age. We used to ride our bikes at night after the chores were done and go and visit our neighbor kids. There were Carol, David and Joyce all siblings and their cousin Jeff that lived on the neighboring two farms. It would be nothing for us to go up there or for them to come to our place to play. I was 12 when I got my first bike. It was so much easier to go and see them after we got the bikes. My older sister RuthAnne and I would take off and ride for hours when the work was done. We had an old pig house that we converted into a play house and that is where we would all congregate to play. This was out behind our barn so we were always close by if needed for anything. Or we would go to our friend’s farms and help them finish their chores so we could play. We had other neighbors on the other side that we would play with on the way home from school. If we didn’t get home at a specific time, my parents always knew that we played a game of barnyard basketball and got sidetracked. My parents never got frantic because we weren’t home at a specific time just as long as we got there before chores were to be done.