Reposted from June 2020
Bill and I cannot remember when we first met. We were always neighbors, and our parents were good friends. We grew up in the dirty thirties and neither of us lacked food to eat because our food was raised on the farm. Our folks milked cows, raised chickens, planted big gardens, canned many quarts of vegetables and fruit, and butchered their own meat. So when we married, hardships were easy to face as we had seen both sides.
Bill and I went to different country grad schools but the situations were similar. We would walk the two miles to school or ride our ponies, and of course, we always took our lunch. In the winter my brother, Roy, would run his animal traps coming and going to school. Until he trapped a skunk and the teacher put a stop to it.
We usually had a few chores before we left for school and again when we came home. We would gather eggs, feed livestock, milk, and separate the cream, carry in wood for heating and cooking, and other chores that needed to be done.
Bill and I did not start dating until we were out of high school. Then Uncle Sam called Bill into the service. After basic training, he was sent to Eta Jima in Japan for Wheel Vehicle Mechanic school and then to the front line in Korea for ten months.
During Bill's time overseas, I thought I would like to attend a horse training school. My dad, Dwight Timbers, was a good horseman and raised Quarter Horses, and I could not find a school that would teach me more than I would learn at home. So I decided to stay on the farm after high school, and we always had at least a dozen horses to be worked and trained. Besides the mares and colts.
Bill and I were engaged for a while before he went into the service and we had decided not to get married until after he was out of the Army. After Bill returned from Korea, he finished his Army service as a military police officer in the U.S. In later years we wished we would have married directly after he returned from Korea. I would have enjoyed following him wherever he was stationed, and we could have enjoyed other parts of the U.S. together.
Once we were married, Bill went into partnership with my dad and brother making Timbers and Eberle Farm. They farmed crops and raised cattle and horses. Also, my dad was in partnership with a livestock sale barn, where Bill worked out back in the pens and I worked in the office once a week. This helped pay for groceries along with income from selling eggs and cream, which definitely would not make a dent in today's grocery prices.
My dad died at a young age from kidney failure after a horse accident. When we lost my dad, his horses were sold and all we were left with was a one or two. Several things changed and there were only cattle and crops raised from then on.
The family has and still plays the most important role in everything we do. I remember our families would get together real often because we all lived close to each other. That is the main reason we stayed around. Another was because we thought this was a good part of the country to farm, and this was where our great grandparents came and settled. So, why would it not be a good place to raise our children, Anita and Ted, and for them to go to school? Anita went to cosmetology school, and Ted attended Fort Hays to study agriculture and animal science. After school, Ted came back to help his dad and uncle. And Bill and I are still here enjoying it after seventy-plus years and seeing our four grandchildren grow up. Now we are waiting for some great-grandchildren.
- Bernita Eberle
2009
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